World's biggest travel fair opens in Berlin, rebuff for fuel tax

07 March 2007

Berlin: The world's biggest tourism fair, the ITB, opened its doors to travel agents on Wednesday. The spotlight this year is on India for it is this year's 'partner' country. 11,000 companies, a record, from 184 nations are participating in this year's fair, which will run from March 7-11.

The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has said that worldwide arrivals had grown more than 20 per cent in the past three years to 842 million. UNWTO president Francesco Frangialli also said that according to the organizations estimate an annual increase of about 4 per cent will be common.

Meanwhile, on opening eve, India showed off its rich cultural diversity at a gala event attended by the tourism minister Ambika Soni. At the festival, Indian tourism officials will be urging Europeans to take advantage of the country's tourism potential. They will point out that India has chalked up annual growth rates of more than 15 per cent in the tourism sector over the past three years.

At the show, organizers said that one complete hall has been set aside for India to showcase its booming tourism industry, as well as to host cultural activities and serve Indian food. Also on the cards for Wednesday was an India Forum at which well known personalities from the travel and tourism industry were to discuss the country's potential over the coming years.

According to tour operators, the two sectors that appear to have enormous growth potential were religious and medical tourism. In this regard, operators pointed out that India lags well behind leader Thailand as a popular tourist destination in Asia. According to industry statistics, Germans spent 60.5 billion euros ( $79 billion) on travel last year.

According to Klaus Laepple, president of the German Tourism Federation, South Africa too was fast catching up as a popular overseas destination, though Italy, Spain, Portugal and Morocco remained the favourite vacation spots for Germans.