ID :
359080
Wed, 03/04/2015 - 12:25
Auther :

President at ITB Berlin Exhibition opening

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ An opening ceremony ran Tuesday for the annual ITB Berlin, an international tourism exhibition held every March in Berlin since 1966. Opening remarks were given by President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Mayor of Berlin Michael Muller, the Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization Taleb Rifai, and the president of the Federal Association of German Tourism Industry Michael Frezel. Mongolia has been participating in the exhibition since 1999, this year is joining it as its official partner. " I am grateful to the German side for having Mongolia take part in this status," the President said. "As the saying goes, 'he who travels far, knows much', and I would like to personally invite all of you to Mongolia, if you want to see the land that has great history of building the largest empires of Attila and Chingis Khaan, to make adventurous travels through vast steppes and fascinating landscapes, to see with your own eyes the country that has made an economic transition and is developing at a rapid pace,' he said. A majority of the participants of this year’s exhibition, 82.5 percent, are from Europe. In particular, the member-states of the European Union are covering 64.4 percent, Asian countries--8.1 percent, African countries--5.4 percent, countries from the American continents--3.2 percent and Australia along with its neighboring countries are making up 0.7 percent of the total participants. Studies show that a number of tourist increases by 15-30 percent in a country after its participation in this exhibition. For instance, the number of tourists who visited Turkey in 2011 totaled to 31.4 million, showing a nine percent increase against the previous year, while the number was at 28.6 million in 2010, when the country attended the exhibition for the first time as an official partner. The number of tourists kept its increasing pace, reaching 39.7 million in 2012 and showing 20-percent increase in 2013 as well. Values of agreements signed between the tourists and tour companies during annual exhibitions reach approximately EUR 6.5 billion every year. The exhibition is held at "Messe Berlin" exhibit hall built in 1930, that occupies 26 facilities and 160,000 square meter. The opening ceremony, art performances and receptions for the Mongolia tour agencies ran at the new facility of the hall called “City Cube”. Mongolia successfully participated in the exhibition as a Cultural Partner in 2011. This year, the theme of Mongolian exhibitors is “Mongolia, Nomadic by Nature”. The exhibition attracts every year some 400 representatives of press and media, which allows partner-countries a great opportunity to advertize its tourism. Mongolia has put a goal for 2015 to receive one million tourists. According to the statistics, Mongolia attracted 417 thousand tourists in 2013 and 392 thousand tourists in 2014.

X