Foreign tourists have voted Neuschwanstein Castle the best place to visit in Germany. Number two on the list is Europa-Park, followed at number three by Cologne Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) carried out the poll - the second of its kind - to find out which of Germany's many sights and places of interest were the most popular among foreign tourists. Between 1 July 2012 and the end of March 2013, visitors were able to vote for their 'top sights' at www.germany.travel/top100. This produced a list of 700 tourist highlights, which were then ranked according to popularity. The survey, which was available in 26 languages, registered more than 46,000 clicks.

Destination Germany is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe and is, according to IPK International 2013, the number one cultural travel destination for Europeans. It was ranked fifth out of 50 nations worldwide as a cultural destination in the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index. Prominent among Germany's many cultural treasures are the 37 natural and cultural heritage sites that have been recognised by UNESCO. In 2014 the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) will be putting Germany's UNESCO World Heritage sites at the centre of its global marketing activities under the banner 'UNESCO World Heritage – sustainable cultural and natural tourism'.

A strong year for international travel by Europeans: according to the World Travel Monitor (WTM) and IPK International, in 2012, Europeans made more than 420 million trips to other countries. Nearly 85 per cent (355 million) of those were within Europe. This means that Europe maintains its prominent position as the largest source and destination market in international tourism.

Social media @GTM www.germany.travel/ gtmlive: The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) will be communicating from the 39th GTM Germany Travel Mart™ in Stuttgart via a range of social media channels – with live updates leading up to and during the most important inbound tourism workshop for Destination Germany. This includes platforms such as Twitter, Foursquare and Storify, among others. The GNTB is using these channels to disseminate information on the seminars, the workshop, network events and on the international press conference at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

The 39th Germany Travel Mart™, the largest marketplace for inbound tourism in Germany, is being hosted in Stuttgart from 5 to 7 May 2013. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is staging this year's event in collaboration with Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH and Regio Stuttgart Marketing- und Tourismus GmbH. "The GTM is Destination Germany's most important B2B platform," explains Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the GNTB. "It is a high-calibre forum where German suppliers can come together with key account managers from all over the world to find the best ways of marketing Germany as a travel destination." This year, the GNTB will again be using social media channels such as Twitter, Foursquare and Storify to ensure that the event reaches the widest possible audience.

Germany puts families and young people in the heart of this year’s campaign, which aims at attracting visitors from the GCC. Therefore, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) announced a major participation in the activities of the Arabian Travel Market 2013 (ATM), taking place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center (DICEC) from 6 till 9 May 2013. This shows the importance of the Arabian Gulf market for the German tourist industry, as it has in recent years become one of Germany’s important source markets for incoming tourism, with numbers of the tourists from the region constantly growing.

At the 2013 Green Meetings & Events conference organised by the German Convention Bureau (GCB) and the European Association of Event Centres (EVVC), Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) announced the latest results for inbound tourism in Germany. The conference in Darmstadt was opened in the presence of its patron Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, on 26 February 2013.

Destination Germany is becoming increasingly popular with international visitors. “In the last three years tourism in Germany has grown at a faster rate than the global and European average, and the country has continued to strengthen its position as one of the most popular travel destinations,” says Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). This trend is confirmed by a whole series of studies including the latest international survey on the attractiveness of countries: the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, which measures and compares the reputation of 50 countries around the world, ranked Germany second, behind only the USA and ahead of the UK in third. In the survey, Germany was perceived as a reliable, trustworthy and modern country and it scored particularly highly in the field of business and innovation.

The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) launched a broad-ranging social media campaign entitled ‘Youth HotSpots in Germany – Share the moment.’ at the 2013 ITB in Berlin as part of its ‘Germany for young people – vibrant, fashionable, innovative’ theme. The campaign is designed so that the GNTB can reach out to young people through the most appropriate means for this target group and encourage them to return to Germany again and again. One of the campaign’s core elements is the Youth HotSpot app, which enables users to find free Wi-Fi hotspots in Germany while they are travelling.

Destination Germany is home to a wealth of cultural and natural treasures. Particularly popular are its 37 UNESCO World Heritage sites. They represent a major travel incentive for international visitors and have helped to make Germany the most popular cultural travel destination among Europeans (source: IPK International). The sales and marketing activities of the GNTB play a key part in this success: the ‘City Breaks/Events’ product line, for example, was developed to capitalise on the culture megatrend as a platform for worldwide campaigns and marketing activities.

After a series of successful promotional tours over the past years, the German National Tourist Office (GNTO), the local affiliate of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) in Dubai, concluded yesterday in the United Arab Emirates its recurring road show "Dallal fi Almania" ("Feel Good in Germany") 2013. This tour, organized in partnership with Lufthansa German Airlines, focused this year in particular on the tourist offer for families and young travellers. The road show terminated yesterday in Dubai, after stopping in Kuwait City, Doha and Abu Dhabi for the previous sessions of four-day tour.