Month: May 2012

For the seventh time in succession, Vienna has topped the world-wide rankings as a destination for international congresses. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) published its 2011 congress statistics almost simultaneously with a ceremony held at the City Hall by the City of Vienna to honor Vienna’s 2011 congress organizers. This produced an unexpected bombshell during the celebrations.

Vienna almost seems to have taken out a permanent lease on first place as a destination for international congresses. According to the ICCA statistics, the Austrian capital staged 181 such events in 2011, putting it at the top of the worldwide league for the seventh time in succession. It was followed by Paris with 174 international congresses and Barcelona with 150. The other cities in the top ten were Berlin (147), Singapore (142), Madrid (130), London (115), Amsterdam (114), Istanbul (113) and Beijing (111). Austria was in 10th place in the countries ranking, headed – also almost by tradition – by the USA (759). Not fewer than 68% of Austria’s 267 international congresses took place in Vienna. The best placed countries after the USA were Germany (577) and Spain (463).

Selmun Palace Hotel should be sold by the end of the year following an international advertising campaign to be launched this week, Air Malta said.

The hotel, a subsidiary of Air Malta, was closed down last year after accumulating debts of €13 million. The decision formed part of the national airline’s restructuring plan, which led to the dismissal of some 58 hotel employees.

In collaboration with the government, the airline will step up efforts through the international advertising campaign, Air Malta said in a statement.

“The campaign is aimed to communicate the full potential of this property and inject new vigour in this sale process after previous attempts did not match the airline’s expectations,” Air Malta said.

Prospective bidders will be given the opportunity to acquire the 154-roomed property and a temporary grant of the adjacent 18th century castle.

Air Malta appointed CBRE Hotels – a leading international group that specialises in the hospitality industry and provides sales advisory services – to manage the marketing and sale of the property.

With 59 scheduled airlines and 104 direct destinations, including 65 European cities, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport continues to develop and is constantly introducing new direct air services. Find out all about them now.

Nice Côte d’Azur is France’s second biggest airport with 10.4 million passengers in 2011. It is also the only regional airport to offer a daily flight to New York and Dubai and the leading provincial low-cost airport, with over 3.4 million passengers and 17 airlines. It also accommodates a large business aviation clientele (Europe’s 3rd biggest airport after Le Bourget and Geneva) in a dedicated terminal.

The capital’s new airport, Berlin Brandenburg (BER) will now open on 17 March 2013 after the opening scheduled for 3 June 2012 was postponed due to technical problems in the field of fire protection engineering.

The delayed opening will not have a foreseeable impact on the existing tourism and congress business. However, visitBerlin fears that it could have an adverse effect on future longhaul destinations. The postponement of the opening of BER could also lead to delays in airlines committing to new intercontinental routes which are of great importance to Berlin as a congress location.   Until the opening of the new airport all flights will operate through the existing airports, Schönefeld and Tegel as before.  The extended summer flight schedules of the three largest airlines airberlin, Deutsche Lufthansa and EasyJet are being maintained.

“The ten-month postponement of the opening date is surprising and annoying,” says Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin. “It is now top priority to ensure that the airport is well prepared for the launch. We look forward to the opening of BER as it will greatly improve the accessibility of our city.