Almost two decades ago, the big hotels in Cologne — five at that time — formed a partnership under the Take Five banner.
COLOGNE – Take Five, the marketing association of Cologne’s top-class hotels, aims to have its activities completely integrated into the action plan of the Cologne Convention Bureau (CCB) by 1st January 2013. Because the partners’ cooperation has been so good, they have already combined many Take Five and CCB projects during the past year. In particular, increased competition in the fiercely contested conference, congress and incentive events market has brought the Cologne hotels into a closer alliance with the Cologne Convention Bureau.
The new cooperation also aims to include future-oriented initiatives. As early as 2013, the partners intend to pool their efforts to market Cologne as a congress destination, both in Germany and abroad. At the signing of the agreement Wilhelm Luxem, spokesperson for Take Five, Stephanie Franke, Head of the CCB, and Josef Sommer, Managing Director of KolnTourismus GmbH (Cologne Tourist Board), all said that they were pleased with the outcome, as it takes into account the goals of all the parties concerned.
Almost two decades ago, the big hotels in Cologne — five at that time — formed a partnership under the Take Five banner. The original goal was to raise domestic and international awareness of Cologne as a destination for conferences, congresses and events. Out of this grew an intensive package of measures for location marketing. Important milestones along the way included joint activities such as participating at trade fairs and organizing promotional events, as well as organizing joint events with partners such as travel agencies and airlines. At the same time, the partners developed a service that responded within 24 hours to interested parties’ requests for information about the availability of space for conferences and accommodation. The service found out quickly and unbureaucratically which spaces would be available during certain dates, in a process that integrated all of the member hotels. Today the partnership has grown to include 13 Cologne hotels that all have an interest in cooperating on behalf of Cologne as a destination — despite intense competition among themselves. Take Five has become a brand that is synonymous with top service in Cologne. After the foundation of the Cologne Convention Bureau as an extension of the activities of the Cologne Tourist Board, the next order of business was to seek out possible synergies. It was quickly realized that the members’ strengths should be combined in order to optimise limited resources. The harmonious cooperation that was created has flourished to the benefit of the city.
Due to the increase in the number of inquiries, the CityMarketing Association took over the coordination and implementation of the daily activities at Take Five in 2005. Upon signing the agreement with CCB, Wilhelm Luxem expressed his gratitude to the employees of the CityMarketing office for their positive collaboration in the past. In future, the contact person at Take Five will be Jurgen Wirtz, the new spokesperson for the ERFA Group and the Director of the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cologne.
The Take Five hotels are:
Ameron Hotel Regent, Barcelo Cologne City Center, Dom Hotel, Dorint An der Messe Koln, Excelsior Hotel Ernst, Hotel Mondial am Dom Cologne, Hyatt Regency Cologne, Cologne Marriott Hotel, Maritim Hotel Koln, Pullman Cologne, Radisson Blu Hotel, Cologne, Hotel im Wasserturm, Dorint am Heumarkt.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
