This year’s ITB from March 8 - 12 in Berlin will provide the background to a presentation of the new Tourism Distribution Panel developed by the well-established market research company GfK. This presentation, will be featuring highlights from booking data of the stationary travel distribution business in Germany.

“Travel sales with a fine-toothed comb: What are Germans actually booking?” - is the motto under which GfK at ITB 2006 presents a new distribution panel. This panel continuously collects and analyses booking data from stationary travel distributors in Germany. For the first time, evaluations permit reliable conclusions from the booking habits of German tourists. Effected travel bookings are monitored in a representative sample consisting of 1,200 travel agencies, thus the panel is based on measurable facts that can be projected to the total market by a valid factor. This is an ideal add-on to classic polls or consumer climate indices.

“Tourism offices in particular will benefit from the evaluations, as they receive invaluable information on trends, planning capacities, distribution and marketing of the destination as a holiday region”, explains Hery-Charles Eckert, responsible for the GfK Tourism Panel.

Details gathered in every travel booking, are the source for answering questions such as how many German tourists will come from what region, how long they booked before they started, what price they paid, and many others. Monthly evaluations are available on the 10th day at the latest after termination of every monthly cycle, so subscribers have market data exceedingly quick at disposal.

“Analyses can be conducted even weekly, this is the right thing to do if it is desired for example to trace the impact of a natural disaster or terrorist attacks on the booking and travelling behaviour of tourists. Even the success of promotional and image campaigns can be monitored very closely up-to-date and not only when the tourists are just arriving.”, says Hery-Charles Eckert. With its analyses of market volumes and structures, of market potential, positioning and benchmarks, the GfK Tourism Distribution Panel is a strategic instrument useful in politics, management, marketing and sales.

After more than one year of planning and construction, the Tourism Distribution Panel is now ready to be launched on the market. Starting with the winter season 06/07 it will be possible to compare on a year-to-year basis. Still in this year online travel bookings will be added to the stationary distribution in Germany. Besides GfK is busy preparing the setup of a tourism distribution panel in other European countries.

The presentation

`Travel Sales with a fine-toothed comb: What are Germans actually booking?`

Takes place on Saturday 11 March 2006 as part of the programme to the `ITB Marketing & Sales Day` in hall 7.1a, room New York 1. GfK Marketing Services is represented at the DRV stand (Deutscher Reiseverband) in hall 10.1, booth - 107.