ITB Berlin 2024: Travel Industry Looks Forward to Excellent Business Year

Despite global crises, the travel industry displayed confidence at the ITB Berlin 2024 exhibition while the people’s desire to travel is appearing unabated, the trade show’s organizer Messe Berlin said on Thursday.

ITB Berlin, one of the leading travel trade shows wrapped up on Thursday with, according to the organizer, all signs pointing to success in 2024.

Commenting on the show, Messe Berlin CEO Dr. Mario Tobias said the mood among exhibitors, visitors and speakers was very positive throughout the three-day exhibition.

“They generally agreed that people’s desire to travel is not just satisfying pent-up demand after the pandemic, but that it will remain basically stable,” he said, adding that neither inflation nor high energy prices appear to be curbing demand.

Dr. Mario Tobias, CEO Messe Berlin.

Despite widespread strikes, this year’s ITB Berlin recorded a slight increase with nearly 100,000 attendees – a result that exceeded expectations in the face of challenging strike circumstances. Diverse and globally represented, more than 5,500 exhibitors from 170 countries illuminated the three business days, occupying all 27 exhibition halls at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds.

#ITBTOGETHER

ITB Berlin 2024 opened under the heading #ITBTOGETHER wanting to pass on the message that despite rising travel demand, the industry also faces many challenges, which can only be overcome “together”.

As Messe Berlin highlighted, in recent months, the invasion of Ukraine has been followed by another geo-political conflict in the Middle East, adding further uncertainty to the urgency of achieving sustainability.

“Despite all the euphoria and the positive outlook, the participants were all aware of the huge challenges also and in particular facing the travel industry. The ’Together’ in this year’s slogan underlines the fact that only community action can master the travel industry’s challenges“, Dr. Tobias said.

Ukraine, Israel and Palestine all exhibited at ITB Berlin. At Israel’s press conference the tourism minister promoted travel to Israel and appealed for travel warnings to be dropped.

China is back

Following the pandemic and compared with 2023, this was the first time the industry registered a positive trend in the Asian-Pacific region. One example was China, which celebrated its return as an exhibitor this year and now welcomes visitors from selected countries by fast-tracking their visas.

Exhibition floor

Moreover, the ITB Berlin expo was bigger this year. The re-opening of five refurbished halls permitted several changes, together with improvements in many areas. For the first time, the German-speaking countries were all under one roof and together occupied hub27. China, Liechtenstein and the Emirates airline were welcomed back to the show, along with newcomers Dominica, the Cayman Islands and Disney Cruise Lines. The fact that many exhibitors had expanded their displays was also positive. They included the popular holiday destinations Italy, Greece and Turkey as well as exhibitors from the Asian, Arab and African markets. The Travel Tech segment also expanded again. This year the Mobility segment also reflected a growth market, and the Cruise segment again showed itself to be ever-popular.

ITB Berlin Convention: Growing importance of AI

AI and its potential uses were a much-discussed topic at the ITB Berlin Convention, which took place parallel with the three-day show.

The main conclusion of the convention’s dedicated AI (artificial intelligence) Track was that no organisation or company could any longer ignore AI.

Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, was certain that “generative AI can be of more assistance than real humans when customers are making their travel plans”.

Glenn Fogel, Chief Executive Officer and President | Booking Holdings.

Charuta Fadnis, SVP Phocuswright.

Charuta Fadnis, SVP, Phocuswright also acknowledged the growing importance of AI and personalised travel apps. Generative AI is already improving sales, while in Fadnis’ view, using virtual agents and combining AI with blockchain technologies will be key to preventing misuse in the future.

Important topics at the convention included the shortage of skilled labour and climate justice.

Featuring high-profile attendees and a total of 400 leading international speakers at 200 sessions and 17 theme tracks discussing trends and innovations, the convention saw some 24,000 attendees come to the panels, discussions, keynote speeches and lectures.

ITB Berlin’s host country this year was Oman, which made a strong showing, doubling its display size in Hall 2.2 to more than 800 square metres.

The next ITB Berlin will take place as a B2B event again from Tuesday to Thursday, 4 to 6 March 2025 on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds.

Albania will be the host country of ITB Berlin 2025.