zurück

Meetings destination Berlin

01.04.2005

TagungsWirtschaft 04/2005

Positive review and a premiere

Berlin, which lays claim to be Germany's top city-break destination, is also the number one German host to meetings, conventions and incentives. The recently published review of 2004 by Berlin's meetings statistics department corroborates that last year this segment gained further in importance for the German capital. The Berliners registered a total of 79,850 events in 2004 with 6.2 million meetings and convention participants, clearly bettering the year-earlier results by ten and nine percent respectively.
The 152 Conference hotels in the city played a crucial part, staging 67,200 of all events (up 12%) and hosting altogether 3.3 million participants (+14%). In Berlin's 101 special event locations 10,900 different business gatherings (+2%) involving 2.2 million guests (±0%) were registered.
Finally, the six convention centres and halls in the capital accounted for another roughly 1,750 meetings and congresses (+7%) with 700,000 visitors(+11%).
Officials in Berlin describe as substantial the economic importance of the event sector, which was given another significant boost versus 2003. The turnover generated by participants in 2004 came within a whisker of EUR 1 billion (+32%). On average, each meeting and Conference delegate spent EUR 161 a day in the city (EUR 132 in 2003). Says Hanns Peter Nerger, managing director of Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH (BTM): "An analysis of our 2004 convention statistics shows how important this segment is as a Stimulus to Berlin's economy. We therefore greatly welcome the fact that the Tourism Round Table under the auspices of Berlin's governing mayor is devoted to the subject of meetings and conventions in 2005."
With a view to further exploiting the meetings and conference market's growth potential and compensating the trend to shorter meeting durations in Berlin (1.6 days against 1.7 in 2003), this summer the BTM is launching a new marketing event entitled "Meeting Place Berlin". Taking place for the first time in the capital from June 30 to July 2, 2005, it aims to increase the number of several day conventions in Berlin with more than 250 delegates, further boosting the economic significance of the meetings and Conference segment for the Ger-man capital. Around 300 selected national and international hosted buyers, i.e. association and corporate Sponsors and organisers and decision-makers from agencies, will be invited to this event, which the BTM intends to keep entirely exclusive.
The Berliners plan to hold the trade workshop "Meeting Place Berlin" every two years. In turn, the Incoming Workshop for Business und Leisure Travel, known as the "Berlin Pow Wow", will next take place in February 2006, after which it will be arranged again at annual intervals on the traditional date (the first weekend in February), familiarising travel specialists from all over the world with the German capital's tourist offering.
Information on "Meeting Place Berlin" is available at www.meeting-place-berlin.de and www.meeting-place-berlin.com

zurück