Difficult to believe but next week’s edition of ITB Berlin will be the first one since 2019. Where did the last four years go?
Judging by the much higher-than-usual numbers of people planning to attend everyone is keen to make up for lost time. We’ve seen clients on interminable waiting lists to gain a stand despite having budgets and spoke with a lot of more-stressed-than-usual companies who have been lucky enough to get a stand.
Given that ITB is quite chaotic, overwhelming and physically demanding even at the best of times, we predict that by the end of the week there will be more than a few frazzled travel professionals falling asleep on the flight home.
What recommendations do we at Belvera Partners have to help you get through the week with not only your nerves intact, but also having achieved what you actually came to do?
- Study that floor map and plan your routes like your life depended on it. And don’t assume that hall 3 leads to hall 4 or any other basic logic, the building is a maze.
- Take lots of cash: the restaurants and food stalls don’t take cards – and there’s only a few cash machines in a building with 60,000 people.
- Bring your own food: even if you do have cash, the waiting lines for the mediocre and slightly overpriced nourishment can be eternal.
- Think carefully about where you´ll hold a meeting: there are almost no public areas for sitting down.
- Consider carefully how you´ll get to and from the show: the train station opposite simply can’t cope with the volumes of people and it is impossible, repeat impossible, to get a normal taxi.
- Get used to standing around in waiting lines in the freezing cold: bring a warm coat and make sure your phone is charged.
Making this was great fun. If only attending the world’s busiest trade show was! All the same we are hugely excited about seeing so many of you next week.
