ITB Berlin has celebrated 50 years of existence

This year's five days exhibition registered fully booked halls, a record number of 120.000 visitors and unprecedented sales

ITB Berlin, at its 50^th anniversary, is officially the leading trade show for the global travel industry, as 10.000 companies from 187 countries and 120.000 visitors attended the event held in the 26 exhibition halls of the trade. ITB Berlin 2016 accounted for a total of seven billion euros closed businesses.

Chief Executive Officer of Messe Berlin, Christian Goke, commented:

“Never before in its 50 years has ITB Berlin welcomed so many trade visitors to the exhibition halls. After this five day event trade visitors and exhibitors are leaving Berlin with a clear message: even in times dominated by a 'sense of uncertainty' people are not willing to do without their holiday trips. Conversely, over the past few days the travel industry has made it clear that it can provide suitable answers to the major challenges that it currently faces.“

The huge interest for this year's successful event shown by the media and politics translates into more impressive figures: 5,000 accredited journalists from 80 countries, 380 bloggers from 30 countries, 124 official delegations, royalty from four different houses, 48 ministers and 87 ambassadors attended ITB Berlin 2016.

Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), also declared:

“On the occasion of its 50th anniversary ITB continues to reflect the vision and leadership of the tourism sector. We at UNWTO are very proud to have ITB as a strong partner and thank the whole team at ITB for their contribution to making the tourism sector more competitive but also more responsible and sustainable.”

The next ITB Berlin expo is scheduled between 8 and 12 March 2017. Botswana will be the Official Partner Country for next year's event. Additionally, starting May 2017, ITB China will be annually organized in Shanghai.