Tag Archives: Berlin

Google’s in-house start-up incubator ‘Area 120’ has introduced a travel guide website ‘Touring Bird’ that lists tours, attractions and activities for travellers in popular travel destinations. ‘Area 120’ is a workshop for the tech giant’s experimental products. So far, the site provides information about 20 cities, including New Delhi, Prague, Chicago, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Las Vegas, among others. In the upcoming months, they plan to increase their coverage. “When you select a destination city, you’ll see popular attractions, suggested tours and activities, along with prices, options for free guided tours and recommendations from locals and travel bloggers,” Touring Bird website said. The app comes with a build-your-own package feature wherein users would be able to customise and compare filtered offerings by price and preferences, to find the best match to their plan, along with booking and cancelling provisions. “We’re a small team that’s brought together by a common passion for travel and improving the overall travel experience for others. Most of us have a background in building travel products at Google, and we’re all deeply passionate about solving real user problems in this space,” added the website. Users would also be able to bookmark their favourite activities and recommendations — food, destinations, stays and amusements — to a list and share it with fellow travellers. At present, Touring Bird is available in English for desktop as well as mobile users, globally. Source: IANS

Berlin has recorded 6,600 Indian overnights over the first two months of 2016 corresponding to an increase of 13.2 per cent over the same period in 2015. However the number of Indian visitors declined by 2.5 per cent with only 2000 Indian guests visiting Berlin in the first two months of 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015. This was revealed by Christian Tanzler, Spokesperson and Media Relations Manager, Visit Berlin, at the 42nd Germany Travel Mart which was held from April 17-19, 2016, in Magdeburg. Tanzler said, “Though the number of guests may have reduced, they are staying for longer periods of time which means that they spend more money in Berlin, go shopping, visit the museums and explore the city more.” He informed that in 2015, Berlin witnessed 21,000 Indian visitors and 56,000 Indian overnights corresponding to a 20 per cent increase in Indian arrivals over 2014 and 15.2 per cent increase in overnights stays from India. Tanzler also added, “To promote the city we take part in several travel marts and fairs. We had also collaborated with studios in Bollywood to shoot in the city. For the travel trade we suggest that even if they cannot visit Berlin, they can do online training and learn about the city.” Romit Theophilus, Director of Marketing & Sales Office India, German National Tourist Office, said, “This year we have 21 participants from India in GTM which includes 15 tour operators and 6 journalists.”

India Tourism was awarded the “3rd Best Tourism Destination in Asia for 2016”, at ITB, Berlin, Germany. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism along with the members of Indian team received the award certificate presented to India Tourism, for “3rd Best Tourism Destination in Asia for 2016”, on March 12, 2016.