In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!

In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!

In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!

Wie können lokale Gemeinden beim Aufbau resilienter Tourismusprojekte unterstützt werden?
Futouris-Mitglieder wie Gebeco unterstützen in ihren Projekten lokale Gemeinden und indigene Gruppen (z.B. eine Khwe-Gemeinde in Namibia) bei der eigenständigen Entwicklung und Umsetzung von touristischen Angeboten, um langfristig ein stabiles Einkommen zu generieren. Doch was, wenn keine Touristen mehr kommen? Die Corona-Pandemie mit den daraus resultierenden Reisebeschränkungen hat zu einem monatelangen Ausbleiben der Reisenden geführt und solchen gemeindebasierten Tourismusprojekten die Grundlage entzogen. Infolgedessen kämpfen viele lokale Gemeinden und insbesondere indigene Gruppen um ihre Existenz. Gleichzeitig hat die Pandemie deutlich gezeigt, welche Chancen in „community based tourism“ Angeboten liegen: wird der Tourismus als additive Einkommensquelle neben der Landwirtschaft aufgebaut und vorhandene Infrastrukturen (z.B. home-stays) genutzt, ermöglicht dies eine höhere Resilienz. Was sind wichtige Erfolgsfaktoren für ein resilient aufgestelltes CBT-Unternehmen? Was sind die Learnings aus den Projekten der Futouris -Mitglieder aus den letzten 2 Jahren mit Corona? Kann die Beteiligung von Gemeinschaften und der Nutzen des Tourismus für die ortsansässige Bevölkerung für die Reisebranche insgesamt zu einem Schlüsselfaktor in der Produktentwicklung und -vermarktung werden?
In einem kritischen Gespräch treffen die Futouris-Mitglieder Gebeco und ATC Namibia auf Prof. Dr. Christian Baumgartner.

We encounter the term and concept of resilience in many aspects of life. People asked about how they’d define it, might say it is about one’s ability to bend but not break, bounce back, and perhaps even grow in the face of disadvantageous or negative life experiences. The American Psychological Association (2014) defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.” Sure, this definition gives you the gist – but it does not reflect the complex nature of resilience and its biological, psychological, social and cultural factors that interact with one another: Just because one adapts well to stress in a workplace, this does not mean they also do so in their personal life. At work, especially New Work, resilience plays a major part – particularly relevant in our era. The Covid-19 pandemic we have been facing for almost two years completely turned our already rapidly changing world of work upside down. It gave New Work another digitalization boost. And even companies that had long opposed digital change had to resort to digital solutions. The pandemic obviously also had an impact on tourism. Which is what Tourism Resilience is about: an industry’s need, to adapt to those current challenges.
In economic jargon, self-reliance refers to the inward development of a country – meaning that it does not export raw materials but uses them in its own country. On an individual level, self-reliance is described by the Cambridge Dictionary as “the quality of not needing help or support from other people”. Therefore, self-reliance is the ability to rely on your own efforts, abilities, powers and resources, rather than that of those around you. Apart from an individual’s or a country’s, this can also be transferred to a company’s self-reliance – which is what we especially want to focus on in this podcast.

Meet My Green Butler in our most recent ITB Travel Hero Podcast!
What is a "green butler"? An easy-to-use sustainability management platform that uses gamification and eco-feedback to persuade guests, staff and tourist accommodation owners to effectively reduce carbon emission through conserving energy & water & cutting waste. That sounds interesting, doesn’t it? ..and it’s fit for business: As a cloud-based SMART tech solution with science-based results, it monitors multiple resource types, audits carbon and records financial savings in real-time.
The amazing part is that everyone is involved: Guests and staff enjoy being involved and are highly motivated to help conserving resources - it’s actually their behavior which is in the center of this sustainable hospitality management tool. Learn more about the story behind it when our CSR Commissioner Rika Jean-Francois chats with Dr. Christopher Warren, Founder & CEO of My Green Butler

In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!

From 8 to 10 March 2022, the ITB Berlin Convention, a leading thinktank and the largest travel industry event of its kind, will focus on solutions regarding resilience, digitisation and sustainability. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the event will take place entirely online on the brand website itb.com, and for the first time from Tuesday to Thursday. Numerous leading speakers will talk about the global challenges facing the travel industry, share their unique expertise, provide orientation and take a look at the future.

This podcast aims to preview this year’s ITB Convention and, as a kind of kick-off event, to take a look at the key topics. What will we be doing in 2022, and why? And how are we moving forward with the key topics of recent times?

*Please note: the podcast was recorded before the emerging current crisis, so no reference was made to it

In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!

In 2016, ITB Berlin celebrated its 50th anniversary. The anniversary was the festive occasion for us to visit various destinations worldwide to thank them personally on site - under the motto "From Berlin With Love!"

50 topics or events from 50 destinations worldwide were selected as a hook for the visits, each related to tourism, politics, social issues, nature or history. 50 ITB Ambassadors (Ambassadors) from Berlin each visited a local Representative on site, with both people having a personal connection to the topic.
During the personal meeting, an interview was conducted and each was presented with an ITB Buddy Bear.

Today, we are reviving these emotional stories, true to the motto: "What's up with the ITB Berlin Bears?"

Namely, we wanted to know how the Representatives have fared over the past 5 years, what they have experienced and learned, how the pandemic has impacted their work, and what their biggest wish is for the future.

Join us on this adventure!