THE German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has announced its strong presence at the Arabian Travel Market 2011 (ATM), aiming at further increasing the number of visitors from the Arabian Gulf. The GCC has become one of the most important source markets for incoming tourism to Germany in recent years, with numbers of tourists from the region steadily rising. By promoting its two key marketing themes 2011, health and wellness tourism as well as the 125th anniversary of the motor car, the GNTB aims at further strengthening this upward trend. The announcement for a strong presence at the ATM was made by Antje Roeding-Boudier, Director of the Marketing and Sales Office for the Gulf Countries at the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) in Dubai, GNTB's local affiliate, yesterday. The region's premier travel and tourism event is scheduled to take place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center between May 2 and 5. The annually recurring ATM is one of the world's leading travel exhibitions, drawing representatives of tourism destinations from around the globe, who want to showcase their touristic attractions to an international audience. “We are certain that this year's ATM will be very successful for Germany, since GNTB's marketing themes 2011, especially the promotion of health tourism, are particularly appealing for visitors from the Arabian Gulf. We therefore expect our stand to draw the attention of the regional audience and travel industry,” said Antje Roeding-Boudier. “The German medical sector enjoys a great reputation abroad. Every year, tens of thousands international patients come to Germany, in order to receive treatment in hospitals as well as ambulatory care. In addition to a great offer in diagnostics and an excellent medical infrastructure, patients benefit from highly trained and specialized doctors and nurses,” she added. Medical tourism is a holiday segment that is experiencing strong demand in the Arabian Gulf countries. Germany is particularly well prepared for tourists from the GCC region seeking medical treatment. Many medical facilities provide Arab guests with tailored packages, including both patients and accompanying family members. Roeding-Boudier stressed that these offers are met with great interest, because they allow many tourists from the Gulf to come to Germany and receive medical treatment, while their families are being entertained on visits to the beautiful landscapes and culturally rich cities of the country. In addition to the promotion of medical tourism, the GNTB this year focuses its campaign on the 125th anniversary of the invention of the automobile. Given the great popularity that German car brands enjoy in the region, Gulf visitors already showed great interest in this field. On this occasion, many events, such as car museums with pioneering architecture and innovative technologies have been planned, in order to expand the automotive-themed tourist attractions. The following partners, including German regions, cities, hotels, airlines, car rental as well as destination management companies, will showcase their services and products: airberlin, Airport Düsseldorf, Alpha Travel Consultants, Apart Hotel & Residences (Leonardo Hotels), AVIS Car Rental, Baden-Baden Health Resort & Tourism, Berlin Tourism & Congress, C Germany Tours GmbH, Düsseldorf Marketing & Tourism, Fraport, Hamburg Tourism, Hotel Palace Berlin, K?ln Tourism, Lufthansa German Airlines, Regent Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Sofitel Munich Bayerpost, Stuttgart Marketing, Tourism Congress Frankfurt, Tourist Office Munich. Various special offers matching the promotional topics will be available, and brochures as well as information material in both English and Arabic will be displayed at this stand. Following the ATM, the Germany Travel Mart (GTM) will take place in the cities of Cologne & Bonn between May 8-11, 2011. The GTM is Germany's largest incoming event for the tourism industry. During various workshops the travel trade has the opportunity of meeting suppliers and decision makers from the German travel industry. Over the past years, Germany has observed a constant increase in the number of visitors from abroad. In 2010 for the first time, overnight stays by international travelers passed the record-breaking 60-million mark. Moreover, recent statistics revealed an increase of 26.4 percent of overnight stays by tourists from the Arabian Gulf in 2010 as compared to the figures of the previous year, making the region one of the most important growth markets for the German tourism industry.
