Tag Archives: itb berlin

March 11, 2012 · 17:31

Twitter included … Update to this Blog

At this years ITB I did not only meet a lot of people and followed some seminars, I was also quite strongly looking at the discussions that were led about this events on Twitter. Looking at very successful travel bloggers  I realised how important Twitter is as a tool to follow and also to have discussions. I do not have to many followers, but using the itbberlin hashtag, I got involved into some discussions and it was a great experience, to get instant feedback on my thoughts.

Furthermore I got some new followers, who gave me some great input, when I was doing some sightseeing in Berlin on Saturday. I hope I can support them as much, whenever they hit my area!

I decided to put my Twitter stream onto this page – so you can have some insights in my everyday life. I use it mostly in English, but some things might be in German, too. If you like my tweets, feel free to follow me … I promise I will have a look at your tweets to (and there is a high chance, that I will re-follow). You can see it on the right hand side.

Another tool that came up, somehow surprisingly, was Foursquare.com. I tested foursquare two or even three years ago, but it was not really developed in Europe back than. After Facebook introduced Facebook Places, I almost quit on foursquare.com … Now I discovered, that this well traveled professional travel bloggers are all using foursquare quite heavily. It allows you to share your visits over Facebook and Twitter easily, and itself developed to a really good tool. I decided to return, as I believe this might be something really helpful for people. I will use it quite a lot to develop lists and feedback on the places in my region. So if you ever come to Western Central Europe connect on foursquare and you get my personal opinion about a lot of places.

In the upcoming days I will reflect about my Berlin experience and put on some photos … I hope you will like them!

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March 10, 2012 · 09:21

Apres ITB – a relaxing evening in Berlin

After visiting a lot of Blogging and social media Events yesterday at the ITB I went to the networking restaurant of Austria Tourism to meet up with a friend. I was a little bit early and got into a very interesting discussion with the head of marketing at Vorarlberg Tourism, Brigitte.

After this ITB was officially over for me – Sepp, my appointment, and I decided to go to Potsdamer Platz. There we took a peek at some minor parts of the Berlin Wall that stand there and walked on towards Brandenburger Tor. We passed by the Holocaust memorial, but it was to dark, to really see something. I will visit this place today.

Brandenburger Tor was very nice and I thought it was a lot bigger, as I expected. On the other hand, the Bundestagsgebäude looks way smaller …

I had no camera with me, but I am going to visit the Bundestag today and make sure I will get some pictures from this great places.

After that we were done sightseeing, we treated ourselfes with a rather expensive drink at Hotel Adlon – but the great athmosphere and the very good live bar music, made it a worthwhile investment. To balance things out, we went to a “normal” bar afterwards – at FC Magnet Bar, we had a beer and watched a boring draw between Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern.

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March 9, 2012 · 11:28

Third day at ITB Berlin… the end of independent travel bloggers?

I am currently attending the third day of the ITB Berlin. Tomorrow I will have my sightseeing-Berlin day.

Yesterday was rather succesful, meeting a lot of interesting people and I believe I managed to get our start up to another level.

Today I concentrate on the eBusiness aspect and visit some seminars, one just finished – it was about http://www.pocketvillage.com, a Berlin travel-meta-search start up. I will keep that one my list.

But I am more interested in the next seminar, about Blogging for Destinations. Back in the days, when I was Destination Manager in the Brandnertal, we decided, that this needs to much resources (time) and therefore decided to not do it.

Therefore I am quite interested in what other people believe …

UPDATE: The discussion, was more about bigger region, inviting Bloggers to their region. There was the example, of Jordan tourism, who invited 8 bloggers to write about their region. Another example was Great Britain who have a group of Bloggers who write about GB regullary. For their efforts they receive free trips and other things. I believe it would have been interesting, to discuss more about the impacts of this. Are this people any longer independend travel bloggers? I do not think so …

At the moment I am at a seminar a guy from the Costa Brava, who also uses Blogging to create stories about his region. He is interesting in storytellers. They invited 16 bloggers (one was part of the discussion in the other seminar) to Costa Brava for one week … they were chosen, due to relevance, topics and reach. They very thoroughly thought about, what topics and what things to do with the Bloggers. In my oppinion Costa Brava tourism set up the stories rather well and therefore gave a great example for good story telling.

What is happening here is that succesful bloggers develop into journalists, who are led through tourism destinations by the PR officers. This is good for them, and shows how professional they got – but it will reduce their indepence. Not because, they stop writing about their experiences, but because they are getting delivered messages, which are targeted at them and their audience.

What is your oppinion? How will it change the way you see big travel blogs? Are they still really independent?

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March 7, 2012 · 19:37

First day at the ITB Berlin

Today was the first day of the ITB 2012 and it was a great experience. I had no appontments today, therefore I was free to have a look at the huge fair and discover my personal favorites.

It is rather exhausting walking through the different halls, as the area is just big and very crowded. But it is inspiring to see, how much effort tourist companies and incoming agencies all over the world have put up, to stand out of the crowd.

After lunch I visited some seminars at the webtravel lounge. It is unbelievable how little input some so called social media experts give. I believe I can call myself a social media expert myself, as it seems hard to learn something new.

But the last seminar I attended was great, and this one definitely gave me some valuable input and insights. It was by Adam Medros. Vice President Global Product, at Tripadvisor. He gave some great insights into Tripadvisor and this speech was really inspiring.

After a long day I finally visited the Austrian Tourist Office Networking Café, where I ended a long day with a nice glass of Austrian beer.

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March 6, 2012 · 23:41

Arrived in Berlin

Today I arrived in Berlin, where I will attend the ITB, which starts tomorrow.

I wrote a post about my decision, to take the train to Berlin some weeks ago and it was a long journey, but it was a pleasant one.

Some remarks about the Deutsche Bahn: the staff is very friendly and they know what they are doing. I especially liked the guy from the board restaurant, who invited the passengers to visit his restaurant at every stop, in a quite funny way.

What came as a surprise to me was, that the Wifi was not for free. Its rather difficult for people who are not customers of the German Telecom to use it.

I was especially impressed by the Frankfurt Skyline, which can be seen from the train rather well.

I have not seen to much of Berlin so far, as I only checked in at my Hotel and visited a sports bar to have some dinner and watch Arsenal vs Milan.

Tomorrow I will visit the first day of the ITB – so stay tuned …

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March 4, 2012 · 21:15

Busy week ahead – ITB Berlin

On Tuesday I will travel to Berlin as I visit the ITB Berlin, the biggest tourism fair world wide. I am looking forward to this, as I meet a lot of interesting people and hope to get some boost for my business. I will try to give you some insights about the ITB. To start with I will give you some facts and figures, so you know a little bit about the backgrounds of the ITB.

  • ITB stands for Internationale Tourismus Börse – international tourism exchange. It was founded in 1966 and is held annually in Berlin.
  • 2012 ITB starts on March 7th and ends on March 11th. The last two days are open to the public, the first three days are for tourism professionals.
  • The fair is spread over an area of 160.000 square meters, with over 11.000 exhibitors that have stands at this years ITB – they represent business from over 180 countries of the world.
  • 2011 there were 169.295 visitors and 110.791 trade visitors.

To visit a fair of this extend needs a lot of preparation – I have a lot of meetings on Thursday. Wednesday I will try to visit some of the most interesting stands (in my oppinion) and Friday is my back-up day. I guess I will not attend on Saturday, as I would love to visit some places in Berlin …

Tomorrow I have another guest entry scheduled – the rest of the week will be concentrating on the ITB and Berlin …

If anyone reading here is also attending ITB, please drop me a message, if your available for a cup of coffee. It´s on me …

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February 27, 2012 · 10:30

Thing to do in Berlin?

Hi,

I am currently planning my trip to Berlin next week and I am not sure what to visit when going to Berlin?

I guess a lot of people already here visited Berlin already and would like to ask you to give my your best tips about places to see, restaurants or bars to visit, hotels and special places that you could recommend me.

I have already found some interesting articles in the Blogosphere.

Please give me your recommendations!

I will write a blog post after my visit, where I will give my impressions about your tips and am happy to share the best posts, that people recommended to me (including back links).

I already booked my visit at the Bundestag (thanks to Kathy at trippykath.wordpress.com) and I will attend the ITB for two days, the rest of my program is still open.

 

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February 12, 2012 · 18:42

Going to Berlin: Train vs Plane?

In March I will attend the biggest tourism fair worldwide – the ITB Berlin. I am really looking forward to this, as I have never attended this fair before and I never visited Berlin, either. I will use the ITB to meet potential partners for my company (www.happyheartofeurope.com)

Today I was planning my trip to Berlin and after checking flights and connections I also checked the train schedule.

This was my outcome:

Best way to get to Berlin by Plane is via Zurich Airport: It will take me 5 hours 30 minutes to get from my place to Berlin City Center and it will cost me €310 (with 15 minutes estimated from arriving at Berlin Tegel to leaving the Airport)*

To go there by Train it will take me 9 hours and 10 minutes – for €88. This is possible due to a special offer of the Austrian Railway Operator. I am not allowed to change my schedule (but I am not allowed to do this on the plane, too).*

* both options with my house as starting point

I went for the train option – for several reason:

  • Costs – €230 are good money, and as I am setting up a company, this is something I have to consider.
  • I do like train rides – I have always plenty to do: read a book, have some coffee, work on my net-book or prepare my appointments… if the train is not too crowded, a lot of work can be done. Moreover I will be able to SEE a lot of Germany, just by passing through it – and I am looking forward to that.
  • My carbon footprint – train rides are more ecological. I did some very long flights in December (to and from India) and I believe its time to be more aware of my carbon footprint again.
  • Social aspects – I somehow tend to be get drawn into interesting conversations, while taking the train – and I can remember only one conversation to a stranger on a plane. This might be connected to my
  • Slight feeling of shakiness, whenever I am flying. I know its safe, I know nothing will happen – but still I am getting nervous during when starting, during landings and whenever we hit the slightest turbulences.

 

As you can see, the time factor was not my decisive for flying. As I am using my train time to do some work, I do not feel I lose that much time, that it weights up all the other upsides of taking the train.

So, what are your thoughts … is time so valuable that you always take the fastest options? Have you suffered too much on trains to consider them (I have friends who tell me just that)? Are you a airplane enthusiast? – or would you have made the same decision?

 

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