Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW)

Commitment for mobility and travel

Mobility and travel play an important role in Germany: For many years, the Germans have already been holding the inofficial title “world champion in travelling”. And Germany itself is becoming increasingly popular as a travel destination for guests from Germany and abroad. Additionally, there are about 150 million business travels registered each year in Germany. People want to be mobile, they want to travel, meet friends and business partners, make new acquaintances and learn about different cultures. Precisely this is the aim of the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW) and its members. About 40 of the largest enterprises and federations of the tourism industry in Germany are members of BTW. The spectrum covers air, road and rail traffic, hotel and catering services and tourism marketing. It covers private tourism and private mobility as well as the business travel sector.

Since its establishment in 1995, the BTW is committed to represent the common and overall interests and needs of the tourism industry. The ultimate goal is to maintain and to optimize mobility. Fiscal and labor policy, competition, the implementation of climate protection and infrastructure play important roles. At present about 2.9 million people work in the German tourism industry.

The BTW focuses especially on the following requirements for its political activities:

• Development of a tailor-made infrastructure and a stronger intermodality of all means of transport
• Fair competition for enterprises to guarantee success on a long-term basis
• Climate protection is important and the Tourism industry acts already accordingly.The BTW invites policy makers to take into account the industry’s efforts and claims to avoid new disproportionately obligations.
• Consumer protection without overcompensation and a comprehensible consideration of the results of impact assessments.