ITB Berlin NOW Underway in a Virtual Platform
ITB Berlin NOW, for the first time in an all-virtual format, is ready to get going on Tuesday, 9 and stretch out to Friday, 12 March for trade visitors only. As part of ITB Berlin NOW, the ITB Berlin NOW Convention, the largest travel industry event of its kind, will also take place as a virtual event.
The fair is slated to open with a press conference on 9 March, at 9:00 a.m., arranged for 27 exhibitors and featuring 88 exhibitor presentations.
From 9 to 12, ITB Berlin NOW will be tailored entirely to the needs of tourism professionals, bringing the industry together in virtual form and offering numerous opportunities for networking and negotiating business along with information on the latest industry products.
The opening press conference will be moderated by Monika Jones, news anchor with Deutsche Welle, and the panel will include Martin Ecknig, CEO Messe Berlin, who will be tasked with the opening speech and giving the highlights of ITB Berlin NOW 2021.
The first online sessions following the news conference will be conducted by Caroline Bremner, head of Travel Research, Euromonitor International, with a presentation entitled “Travel forecast model: COVID-19 scenarios
One year after the pandemic: an insight into global consumer behavior”.
That will be followed by Norbert Fiebig, president, German Travel Association (DRV), who will speak about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the travel industry.
After each session, there will be a Q & A lasting approximately 10 minutes, during which media representatives can use a chat tool to ask the panel questions. The opening press conference of ITB Berlin NOW will take place in English only and in a virtual format.
All contents and presentations, focused on product presentations and exchanging information on best practices, will be in the form of live discussions via chat. The presentations will be recorded and available afterwards as on-demand videos on the platform until May 31.
One of the key presentations on opening day will be conducted by Esther Orriols, Brand Manager Barcelona Medical Destination, Catalan Tourist Board, and Dr. Antoni Arias, director of International Services, Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, who will talk about the idea behind the Barcelona Medical Destination (BMD). BMD is a platform for medical centres, hospitals and clinics which aims to promote Catalonia as a destination for specialist medical treatment.
The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) is ITB Berlin NOW’s co-host, Mascontour Track is the sponsor of the ITB Future Track, Google and Lufthansa are track sponsors of the ITB Marketing & Distribution Track, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is the ITB Sustainability Track partner, SIO AG is the track sponsor of the eTravel DATA TALKS and Studiosus is the session sponsor.
