HANOVER’S Expo 2000 will be the main feature of this year’s Germany Travel Show, to be held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London on June 8.
The Expo will include exhibits from 187 countries, highlighting mankind, technology and the environment. The event runs from June 1 2000 to October 31 2000, and is expected to attract 20m visitors from around the world, each spending two days at the event.
The UK is expected to be one of the biggest overseas markets, with 250,000 visitors expected.
The event, which will be promoted in the UK this autumn with both consumer and trade advertising campaigns, will put Germany’s northern cities under the spotlight. UK marketing manager for Hamburg John Ball said: “With most British visitors heading for the Rhine or the Black Forest and Bavaria to the south, it is a way of getting people to the north of Germany for the first time.”
German National Tourist Office director for the UK and Ireland, Rudolf Richter, said visitors to the show will look beyond Hanover once the city gets booked up.
“The whole of Germany will be promoted,” said Richter.
“Not everyone will stay in Hanover, the objective is to promote other cities too.
“We have improved the high-speed rail links from Hanover to Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Hamburg is 1hr away, Frankfurt is 2hrs and Berlin is 1hr 40mins.”
Richter hopes tour operators will use Expo 2000 as a starting point for two-centre packages to the country. “With the excellent rail links, operators could combine Expo with a city break in Cologne, or even a lakes and mountains package in Bavaria,” he added.
At the third annual Germany Travel Show, Richter is expecting around 120 exhibitors from the country’s tourist industry. The GNTO has sent out several thousand invites and is expecting to attract around 480 visitors from the UK trade.
n Sales agents for Expo 2000 include German Travel Centre, Travelscene, Kuoni, Moswin, DFDSScandinavian Seaways and DER Travel Service.