The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is launching its recovery programme from 22 to 24 June, with the first virtual Germany Travel Mart, the largest sales event for German incoming tourism, after three months of lockdown. As many as 450 key accounts from the international travel industry in 49 countries have registered for virtualGTM 2020.
During the three days of the event, they will meet 250 German companies from the hotel, transport and leisure industries, incoming services and regional tourism organizations to get to know their offers and negotiate for the coming year.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, the demand reflects a strong interest of the foreign travel industry to continue doing business with German service providers in the future. The GNTB's tried-and-tested GTM networking tool enabled appointments to be made online in advance.
Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the GNTB, explains, "The GTM has established itself as an extremely efficient platform for business contacts and contracts between key accounts of the international travel industry and German providers. With more than 5,000 agreed meetings, the virtual marketplace alternative we have developed has met with an exceptionally positive response".
Romit Theophilus, Director, Sales & Marketing, German National Tourist Office, India said, “Indian participants from the travel trade are not only updated on various attractions of destination Germany but are also given an opportunity to be part of one-on-one interactions with German suppliers, along with varied panel discussions and webinars conducted to showcase and deliver regular updates on the current situation. We have further presented new insights on how the market has changed over the last months and several campaigns have been launched to ensure continuous brand awareness and travel inspiration for Destination Germany”.
In addition to the business platform, virtualGTM offers a comprehensive information program. This includes panel discussions and webinars with market insights into the status quo of German incoming tourism, the latest trends and developments of major partners in the German tourism industry and the GNTB's current and planned marketing campaigns over the next two years.
The GTM 2020 in Rostock, originally planned for May, was postponed for Corona reasons in close consultation between the GNTB and the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania tourist board as host. The next physical GTM will take place in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from 25 to 27 April 2021.