ITB 2015: Increase in International Travel Technology Exhibitors

Travel Technology has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing segments at leading travel trade show ITB Berlin, attracting exhibitors from all over the world.

From 4 to 8 March 2015 over 170 companies, including around 30 newcomers, will be showcasing their innovations and products on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Among those exhibiting for the first time are Baidu, a search engine from China as large as Google, and Qunar, one of the country’s biggest booking platforms.

In particular, the Travel Technology segment is attracting a growing number of international exhibitors.

In addition to companies from China, others from the UK (Intuitive Systems, Hotel Room Auction), Finland (Frosmo), India (Travel BPO, Moxiter), France (Flatswire) and Turkey (Yield Planet) have also secured display areas at the show. Furthermore, a number of Italian travel startups will be occupying a combined display under the heading of “Start Up Italia”.

“In the tourism industry innovation is a process rather than part of a product… The innovative spirit demonstrated both by startups and established companies in this sector will help to secure future growth in the travel industry,” said David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin.

New at ITB Berlin this year will be the tools Lounge, which will showcase web-based products that target tourism market professionals and show how business processes can be successfully digitised and automated.

The eTravel World is another attraction at ITB. As part of the supporting program, papers and workshops will be taking place on two stages. The range of forum events includes an introduction to Travel Tech, panel discussions on social media, papers on current developments in the markets of Asia and South America, as well as an “Innovators’ Panel” that includes brief pitches on the topic of apps.

ITB Berlin 2015 will take place from March 4 to March 9. From Wednesday to Friday, ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only.

Last year a total of 10,147 companies and organizations from 189 countries exhibited their products and services to 174,000 visitors, who included 114,000 trade visitors.

Photo source: ITB Berlin