Tourism Breaking News
The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) launched its “Season’s Greetings from Germany” online campaign a few days ago. In addition to Christmas markets in smaller and larger cities, the focus is on typical German traditions and winter activities in the countryside.
Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO): “For many years, German cities and regions have been in high demand. This is underlined by the latest results of the Anholt Ipsos Nation Brands Index (NBI) 2022: “Historic Buildings”, “Vibrant Cities”, “Contemporary Culture” and “Cultural Heritage” are particularly influential in shaping our image among potential travelers to Germany. Season’s Greetings from Germany’ promotes itself to International travelers and our neighboring countries with authentic experiences, also in rural areas. In line with our strategic orientation, we have presented the various Christmas offers on the campaign website, above all from a sustainability perspective.”
The “Season’s Greetings from Germany” campaign is now being rolled out internationally via social media, programmatic advertising, audio streaming, e-mail marketing and search engines.
The heart of the campaign is the landing page www.germany.travel/en/christmas with selected Christmas markets, sustainable offers, outdoor activities, and as well as traditional customs for which Germany is known worldwide.
Christmas recipes to bake and various Christmas playlists, as well as a a winter tour of Germany as a podcast provide additional inspiration for potential guests for additional inspiration.
Mentioning of the Christmas, Mr. Romit Theophilus, Director, Sales & Marketing, India said, ‘‘Christmas Markets in Germany are an incredible and celebrated tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Every year, different German towns and cities hold these events that tourists from India also attend. The delectable aromas of hot chestnuts, grilled sausages, and glühwein, coupled with the quaint architecture that braces each town, make these events worth every minute of your time. Even beyond the Christmas villages, sustainable winter fun awaits, such as snow walks, torchlight hikes or Christmas traditions to join in “.
About the GNTO, India
The German National Tourist Office (GNTO), India represented by Airplus Travel Services Pvt Ltd is the official representative office of the German National Tourist Board. With its inception in 2011, the GNTO is based in New Delhi to facilitate, strategize and implement
About the GNTB
The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is Germany’s national tourism organisation. It works on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action to represent Germany as a tourist destination and is funded by the Ministry in accordance with a decision taken by the German Bundestag. Working closely with the German travel industry and private-sector partners and trade associations, the GNTB develops strategies and marketing campaigns to promote Germany’s positive image abroad as a tourist destination and to encourage tourists to visit the country.
The GNTB has a three-pronged recovery strategy for overcoming the challenges of the restart after the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Raising awareness of the Destination Germany brand and enhancing the brand profile with a focus on sustainability and climate change mitigation
- Supporting the travel industry, which is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, through relationship management and the sharing of knowledge
- Developing evidence-based action plans on the basis of targeted market research and ongoing analysis of changing customer demand.
Focus on sustainability and digitalisation
The GNTB promotes sustainable and forward-looking tourism in line with the objectives of the German government. The focus here is on sustainability and digitalisation.
Sustainability has been a core topic for more than a decade and we engage with it as a strategic issue across all areas of the organisation. Our organisation follows a three-pillar strategy that combines the sharing of knowledge with external partners and a supporting communications strategy with our internal sustainability initiative. The GNTB promotes responsible tourism, a key growth area, by showcasing Germany as a sustainable and inclusive destination in the international travel market. This is particularly important as the pandemic has accelerated the global shift in travellers’ values towards greater social and environmental responsibility.
The GNTB is a pioneer when it comes to 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, the GNTB coordinates the German tourism industry’s open-data project, which aims to develop a tourism knowledge graph.
The GNTB has 25 foreign agencies that it manages from its head office in Frankfurt.
