Daily 12 March/März - ITB Berlin

ITB Berlin English Daily 2010 Friday 12 March XI
(Carinthia), Paznau and Tux-Finkenberg (both in Tyrol). In summer, the top destinations
are Lucerne, Lake Garda, Merano, Achensee (Tyrol) and Interlaken.
The Alps remain one of the world’s top tourism destinations, with an estimated 36
million international visitors a year. The Alpine region has 7.3 million beds generating
475 million overnight stays. French Alpine resorts have the largest number of visitors –
overnights at Chamonix-Mont Blanc are estimated at over 8 million a year, followed by
Les Trois Vallées and Merano (South Tyrol-Italy) with over 6.5 million each and then Lake
Maggiore, les Portes du Soleil and Garmish Partenkirchen, each with over 5 million
overnights.
The French and Italian Alps have the largest capacity, with approximately two million
beds, followed by Austria and Switzerland with 1.3 million beds each, and Germany
(500,000). Alpine destinations with the smallest bed counts are Slovenia (80,000 beds)
and Liechtenstein (8,000 beds). Hotels represent 34% of all overnights in Alpine resorts,
hotel-apartments 35% and accommodation in holiday homes 31%.
More routes, more frequencies for Air Berlin
Germany’s second largest carrier, Air Berlin, has announced it will fly up to five times a
day between Frankfurt and Hamburg from May 2010. New destinations from Berlin this
summer include Graz, Rimini, Visby and Gdansk and there will be more frequencies to
Scandinavia. The airline will also increase services to Southern Italy from Berlin, Düsseldorf,
Hamburg and Stuttgart, with additional frequencies to Bari, Brindisi, Catania,
Naples, Olbia and Rimini. It will also introduce a new Stuttgart-Florence service.
Last year, Air Berlin carried 27.9 million passengers, a decline of 3.9% over 2008. Seat
capacity was reduced by 2.6% while the load factor declined by just one percentage to
77.3%. But the airline is optimistic for 2010 and has been recruiting new crew for its
increased services.
Asian hotel groups move into Paris
Three major Asian hotel companies are gearing up to open their first properties in Paris.
Raffles took over Le Royal Monceau in 2007, and will reopen the 153-room hotel this
summer after a major refurbishment with interiors designed by the star French designer
Philippe Starck. The hotel, which dates back to the 1920s, is located near the Arc de
Triomphe and Champs-Elysées, and will have a new spa and several signature restaurants.
Meanwhile, Shangri-La Hotels is carefully restoring the home of Prince Roland Bonaparte
– a grandnephew of Napoleon Bonaparte – built in 1896, and aims to open in the third
quarter of 2010. With views of the Eiffel Tower, the109-room hotel is surrounded by
gardens, and has a signature Cantonese restaurant as well as a spa and swimming pool.
In 2011, Mandarin Oriental will open a 128-room hotel in the prestigious rue Saint-
Honoré. Situated in a listed Art Deco building, it has an interior design inspired by Parisian
‘haute couture’, a spa, swimming pool and a restaurant with a Michelin-starred
chef.