ITB Berlin News 2021 - Day 3 Edition

I NEWS I
EDITORIAL
Richard Barnes
Editor-in-Chief,
ITB Berlin News
ITB takes you to… Mars?
Today, we are well into the ITB Berlin NOW
adventure. We choose the word “adventure”
carefully, as here, we are referring to a leap
into the unknown – a journey into uncharted
territory. It seems fitting that while we are
sitting around virtual tables drinking virtual
coffee in cyberspace as a direct response
to our current human condition, we are also
marvelling at the landing of a huge new
rover on Mars, tens of millions of kilometres
away. Yet again, humankind ventures into
new, undiscovered territory.
Don’t be fooled. Spaceship ITB was not
thrown together in a Silicon Valley garage.
It is the fruit of a huge amount of work,
thought and expertise over the past year, by
a team of highly dedicated people. And just
like a spaceship, it was rather important to
ensure that “failure was not an option”. With
tens of thousands of people all flocking
to the same server at the same time this
week, countless video streams and faceto-face
meetings, it just couldn’t fail. Thus,
amongst other things, an ultra-heavy-duty
AWS Amazon Server has been ensuring
that people from the farthest corners of
the earth could take part without any
issues. And it was essential that this new
platform be as “user friendly” as possible.
The organisers have conceived an intuitive
user interface for the activities, functions
and key elements that one is used to at
in-person events, in the knowledge it
cannot be an adequate replacement. They
therefore made a conscious decision not
to use 3-D animation, avatars or digital
trade fair stands. The platform is a new and
independent design.
One could say that as a purely digital event,
the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show has
already received exceptional feedback,
thanks to the extension of the reach and
interaction with those who were unable to
travel to Berlin.
At ITB Berlin NOW, the focus is clear. Its
key elements are business, networking,
content and news. And it does that all
exceptionally well.
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• Editor-in-chief: Richard Barnes
• Editorial team: Luc Citrinot, Simon King
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• Web Designer: Guillaume Vinrich
• With the participation of: Benjamin Klene,
Ekaterina Morozova
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CONTENTS
#04 DAILY BRIEFING
#05 NEWS
#09 TRADE TALK
#10 EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW
#12 REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT
AFRICA
& MIDDLE EAST
#16 GERMAN REGIONS
MECKLENBURG-
VORPOMMERN
SPECIAL FEATURES
#17 SMART TOURISM
#17 FAMILY DESTINATIONS
& RESORTS
#20 CYCLING TOURISM
ITB BERLIN NEWS • THURSDAY 11 TH MARCH 2021 3