German National Tourist Board (GNTB) presented a campaign update and their vision of ‘Making Tourism More Sustainable’ on the opening day of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM 2023).
GNTB is focusing on sustainable-related aspects across a number of tourism segments under the slogan ‘Germany, simply inspiring’. Those include Embrace German Nature – highlighting natural landscapes and activity holidays; Historic Modern Germany – promoting cultural heritage, and 51 UNESCO World Heritage sites with a spotlight on traditions and customs of rural regions. And thirdly, their Feel Good – Sustainable Travel in Germany campaign, emphasizes how to enjoy an environment-friendly holiday in Germany.
“We aim to make a meaningful contribution towards climate change mitigation. We shall be supporting Germany’s commitment to net zero. GNTB will drive an increasing number of environmentally aware, inbound GCC tourists,” said Yamina Sofo, Director at the German National Tourist GCC Office (GNTO GCC), an affiliate of GNTB.
“It is our goal to present Germany as an all-year-round destination. That will be sustainable, diverse, accessible, inclusive, resilient, and viable for the future,” she added.
The GCC region is now Germany’s top-performing inbound source market in Asia and Australasia. With 404,707 GCC guests, it generated 1.13 overnight stays during 2022. It represented an increase of 117.6%, compared with the same period in 2021.
“These figures confirm that Germany continues to be a preferred tourism destination for GCC visitors. Hence unspoiled nature and careful use of resources are becoming increasingly important to them. We also want to encourage longer stays to reduce carbon footprint per travel day,” Sofo added.
Germany boasts more than 350 spa and health resorts, and GNTB is focusing on sustainability-related aspects of health tourism. These include the preservation of traditional treatment methods, location-specific treatments and remedies as drivers of regional prosperity, and examples of sustainable energy management.
There is also growing interest in low-impact tourism, which is supporting climate goals and making tourism more resilient. Over one-third of Germany’s land area is under special protection. As a nature or national park, it has around 200,000 km of walking trails and 70,000 km of long-distance cycle routes. There has also been a resurgence of interest in traditional lifestyles in rural regions. This has further bolstered Germany’s image as a sustainable travel destination. Germany also boasts 51 World Heritage sites, and over 6,000 museums, offering a wealth of interesting places of cultural and historical significance.
The GNTB’s focus on sustainability provides synergy with the official ATM 2023 theme – ‘Working Towards Net Zero’. In addition, Dubai will be the host for COP28 this year and outbound tour operators and travel agents will no doubt have sustainable travel at the top of their agendas.
Participants in Germany stand this year include Baden-Baden Tourism Board, Düsseldorf Airport, Düsseldorf Tourism Board, Elinor Travel Germany, Frankfurt Airport VIP-Services, Frankfurt Tourism Board, Hommage Luxury Hotels Collection, Hotel Palace Berlin, Ingolstadt Village and Wertheim Village, International Office am Klinikum Solingen GmbH, The Wellem – part of the unbound collection by Hyatt, Wiesbaden Tourism and visitBerlin.
About GNTB
German National Tourist Board (GNTB) works on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action to represent Germany as a tourist destination. It has been funded by the Ministry in accordance with a decision taken by the German Bundestag. Working closely with the German travel industry, private sector, and trade associations, GNTB develops strategies and marketing campaigns to promote Germany’s image as a travel destination and to encourage tourists to visit the country.
GNTB is a pioneer in using immersive technologies (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality), voice assistants, and other conversational interfaces, and artificial intelligence applications such as chatbots. To ensure that tourism offerings are visible on AI-based marketing platforms, GNTB coordinates the German tourism industry’s open-data/knowledge graph project. GNTB has 25 foreign agencies that it manages from its head office in Frankfurt.
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