9 Not only leisure travel OLIVER GRAUE The Business Lounge will be the meeting place for everyone involved in business travel on all days of the ITB. Travel managers can talk to industry colleagues here, as well as to the 18 exhibiting providers. On 3 and 4 March, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Home of Business Travel by ITB & VDR and its co-exhibitors invite you to a networking event. On Wednesday, 4 March, the Green Stage in Hall 7.1b will also focus for a few hours on topics of interest to travel management. The day starts at 10:30 a.m. with a data-driven look at the market: VDR President Christoph Carnier and Claudia Unger analyse the key figures from the latest business travel analysis. This will be followed immediately by a panel discussion with representatives from four providers on the topic of artificial intelligence in business travel. They will explain how they use the technology in their products for booking, payment, meetings and mobility. With increasing geopolitical uncertainties, the topic of duty of care is once again coming into fo- cus. Security expert Sophie Zimmer (KfW Bank) provides insights into how companies can assess risks and protect their travellers. At the session The Economic impact of business and blended travel, representatives from BT4Europe, PwC, GCB and GBTA discuss how business and bleisure promote innovation, trade and employee retention. Romeo Draghicchio is Croatian tourist board chief in Germany. This topic has been on the minds of travel managers for a long time: New Distribution Capability/NDC, One Order and the future of airline distribution. In their presentation, Lufthansa and Parexel will shed light on how booking channels, data quality, reporting and payment are changing. The Business Travel Track ends at 1:00 pm. MESSE BERLIN In Hall 7.2c, Stand 200, the Home of Business Travel by ITB and the German Travel Management Association (VDR) invites visitors to meet and mingle. LONGER STAYS IN CROATIA PRIVAT BUSINESS TRAVEL ITB Berlin is mostly a leisure travel event. But at least one day of the trade fair is also dedicated to business travel managers. GERMAN VISITOR TRENDS Travel managers going green: business travel topics are on stage on March 4. Croatia is a highly successful holiday destination, although overtourism is a challenging issue. The country welcomed 22 million visitors last year, which was only a slight rise, as planned. Germany remains the biggest source market with almost 3.2 million visitors last year. They accounted for nearly 22.3 million overnight stays. This was roughly on a par with the previous year. Romeo Draghicchio, tourist board head in Germany, said: As the largest single country of origin, Germany makes a decisive contribution to the overall result. A good 20% of German guests also stay for an above-average length of time. This ensures stable occupancy even outside the peak season and contributes significantly to reducing seasonality. Hall 1.2/220 DAY 1 3 MARCH 2026 THE ITB NEWSPAPER 60TH ANNIVERSARY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ITB BERLIN! Suddenly under fire: Destinations such as Dubai used to be perceived as safe. PIX123.DE/DAVID VASICEK ITB Berlin is celebrating its 60th anniversary with new innovative formats. But there is also space for nost #fvwkongress All information can be found here! 15. / 16. SEPTEMBER 2026 PENTAHOTEL LEIPZIG Your Gateway to Global Travel Insight Join as Partner, Sponsor, or Attendee. Partner performed by 3 3 Dear ITB Visitor, ITB Berlin has been affected by the impacts of many international conflicts as well as natural catastrophes and not least a pandemic over the course of its 60 years. This year is no different. The attacks on Iran by the USA FVW MEDIEN/MAJ and Israel have already had many con 4 12:45 7.1A ORANGE STAGE JOSCHKA FISCHER ON GEOPOLITICS Amid the Middle East crisis, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer discusses geopolitical shifts, the new world order and the implications for tourism. 15:35 7.1A ORANGE STAGE LEAD TOURISM INTO BALANCE Industry leaders discuss top 6 WEAK JANUARY BUT NO SLUMP German holiday bookings weakened in January against a strong previous year, the latest monthly figures from Travel Data + Analytics (TDA) showed. Although January is traditionally the strongest holiday sales month of the year, booked travel revenues for summer 2026 were 7 Germany, 42% plan to travel elsewhere in Europe, 20% to other continents, and 13% are still undecided. Within Europe, Spain continues to lead, followed by Italy, Scandinavia, Turkey, Greece, France, Austria, and Croatia. BAT SURVEY Germans are travelling more than they have in 20 years and tra 8 A step onto the big stage CONSUMER TRENDS AI TOOLS ENTER TRAVEL SEARCH More Germans are using AI tools to research travel but the technology does not play a significant role in booking travel yet, according to a survey by RTK, Germanys biggest travel agency cooperation. This found that 14% of r 9 Not only leisure travel OLIVER GRAUE The Business Lounge will be the meeting place for everyone involved in business travel on all days of the ITB. Travel managers can talk to industry colleagues here, as well as to the 18 exhibiting providers. On 3 and 4 March, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Home 10 Organised travel grows faster GERMAN AIRLINES CAPACITY CUTS FOR ALGARVE The Algarve, the top holiday destination in Portugal for Germans, is seeing capacity cuts as Condor withdraws and TUIfly scales back. Eurowings, however, is adding seats. Condor cites the financial viability of these route 11 The results show that Germans are still keen to travel in 2026, despite economic uncertainties. They want to travel but they want to plan well and focus clearly on value for money, safety and comfort. This is a good sign for suppliers at home and abroad, says Sören Hartmann, President of the Fe