The German National Tourist Board (GNTB), its long-standing partner Deutsche Bahn (DB) and 32 city partners have launched a Christmas app. Visitors to Destination Germany can use the app to discover the country’s Christmas markets and find out about opening hours, admission prices and highlights in the different towns and cities. Available now, the app is also packed with tips on Christmas shopping, typical customs and gifts, and on New Year’s Eve celebrations in Germany.

Inbound travel to Germany increased significantly again in the first nine months of 2012. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, the number of overnight stays by US visitors from January to September 2012 rose by 3.9 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Destination Germany is the official partner country for the first World Travel Market (WTM) in Latin America. The GNTB made the announcement yesterday at the WTM in London during an international press conference hosted by the WTM organiser Reed Travel Exhibitions.

Drawing a positive balance after more than two years at the head of the tourism organisation for Europe: in October 2012 Petra Hedorfer relinquished her post as President of the European Travel Commission (ETC). The Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has been at the helm of the umbrella organisation of 33 national tourist boards since 11 June 2010.

The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is working with the Hostelworld.com online booking platform to promote its Creative Germany theme, which is aimed at young people. As well as youth travel features in several languages on www.hostelworld.com and in its newsletters, the theme is also being promoted within an app on the GNTB’s current total of nine market-specific Facebook pages.

The year 2013 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Richard Wagner, one of Germany's most famous composers and music dramatists. 2013 marks the bicentenary of his birth. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is using this anniversary as an opportunity to highlight a host of events in towns and cities associated with him.

The Belgian artist Henry van de Velde was an exponent of Classical Modernism who paved the way for the Bauhaus movement. His repertoire ranged from the architectural design of buildings and interiors to the design of jewellery and everyday objects. Numerous commissions brought van de Velde to Germany in 1900, where he left behind an impressive legacy. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is using the 150th anniversary of Henry van de Velde’s birth as an opportunity to highlight his work and to also promote the theme of architecture and design in Germany.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are best known around the world for their eponymous collection of fairytales. But they also bequeathed Germany a comprehensive collection of ‘German Legends’. In 1816 and 1818 they published two volumes of historical legends based on real people and historical places.

The fairytales of brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the best-known works of German literature. Their collection of 'Children's and Household Tales' made the Brothers Grimm famous around the world. 20 December 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the first edition of these popular stories. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB), in conjunction with the Hessen Agentur regional PR agency, is using this anniversary as basis for encouraging culturally minded travellers to visit Germany.

From 17 to 19 October 2012 the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) will be promoting Destination Germany at ITB Asia. This will be the fifth time that the GNTB has used this important international platform in Singapore to build on its marketing activities in Asia, one of its key source markets.

Following on from a highly successful first half of 2012, the Federal Statistical Office has again reported encouraging growth for Destination Germany. The number of overnight stays by international visitors from January to July was up by 8.5 per cent year on year. Overall, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) registered more than 38.7 million overnight stays by international visitors in the first seven months of this year.

The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) and Hamburg Tourismus GmbH have invited key players in the US travel trade and German partners to a workshop in Hamburg on September 17, 2012. Taking part in the Advisory Board's out-of-country meeting will be the Globus family of brands, Tauck World Discovery, Avanti Destinations, Rail Europe, and other influential representatives from the US travel industry.

Overnights to Germany from the U.S. are up three percent totalling 2,238,983 for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year! “With really popular events, such as the dOCUMENTA (13) contemporary art fair in Kassel, the concerts in celebration of the 800 years of the St. Thomas Boys Choir in Leipzig and very successful business events, including the sold out Frankfurt Book Fair, Destination Germany is enjoying another good year,” stated Ricarda Lindner, Regional Manager of the German National Tourist Office in the Americas.

'Dream Tour of Germany', the social media campaign run by the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), came to a successful conclusion at the end of August. The Facebook app and competition microsite went online at the end of July – during which time the app was accessed 58,116 times via the seven international GNTB Facebook pages, 10,300 times via the microsite and was 'liked' by 25,229 Facebook users.

Apple has placed the new ‘Top 100’ app from the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) on its ‘New and Noteworthy’ page online in Germany. The ‘Top 100’ is featured in Apple’s editorial section of the latest and most interesting apps - as recommended by them. Since its launch in mid-August, a total of almost 3,000 downloads have been recorded, with the highest ratio so far from China, followed by the USA and Japan.

Top 100 is the name of the new app launched by the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), which visitors to Germany can use to find out about the country’s top 100 tourist sights. At the beginning of the year, the GNTB conducted a survey among travellers in Destination Germany to find out what they considered to be their personal highlights. Tourist attractions in all 16 federal states are included in the Top 100. Overall, survey respondents selected a wide spectrum of cultural and natural highlights throughout Germany. Top 100 is the GNTB’s first mobile app for Android and iOS devices. It provides specific and extensive information on the particular attractions and enables quick and easy sharing with friends via Facebook. Users can also access up-to-the-minute news on Destination Germany, and they can get money off at various sights thanks to the mobile discount vouchers.

The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is an official partner country of the first World Travel Market (WTM) in Latin America, which will take place in Brazil from 23 to 25 April 2013.

People from all over the world who are fans of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) have the opportunity until the end of August to compete for their very own dream tour of Germany. The ‘Dream Tour of Germany’ competition is part of a new social media campaign through which the GNTB is promoting the outstanding value for money offered by holidays in Germany compared with other international destinations.

The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is an official partner of the German House during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. The German House is a central meeting point for German athletes and representatives from German industry, politics and the media and an ideal venue for the GNTB to showcase Germany as a travel destination.

Spend summer like a local in Germany whiling away the hours in a basket chair overlooking the Baltic Sea or exploring off-the-beaten-path locations such as the mudflats near the east Frisian islands on the North Sea or handing out with the locals at one of the many festivals. Only a few hours from Hamburg and a short flight from Frankfurt, Germany's over 2,100 kilometers of coastline offer endless entertainment in the summer. There are dramatic coastal landscapes and quaint harbor towns with Hanseatic heritage but there are also sophisticated museums, royal sea baths, luxury getaways for the rich and famous and festivals galore.

The overnights to Germany from the U.S. continued to climb this past April, even more than in the first three months. Germany chalked up a total of 35,182 overnights in April alone which resulted in a three percent increase compared to the previous year and a total of 1.21 million overnights thus far for 2012.

Business travel is a key economic factor for Germany. With this in mind, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has created a theme for 2012 entitled 'Germany: open for business – trade fairs and conventions'. The GNTB and the German Convention Bureau (GCB) are jointly promoting Germany's business travel segment in key markets such as China, the United States, Brazil and the UK. At the Meeting Experts Conference (Mexcon), which ended on 20 June in Berlin, more than 700 experts from the world of business, academia and politics discussed the future of the events industry. Mexcon is organised by the European Association of Event Centres (EVVC) and the GCB.

The outlook for this year is brightening for tourism to Germany as the U.S. overnights to Germany climbed by 3.8 percent, or 31,786, from the U.S. in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2011.

Germany celebrates this year the 200th anniversary of the beer garden. This Bavarian tradition dates back to 1812 when the Bavarian King Max gave the edict to allow beer brewers to sell retail quantities of their own beer in their own cellars from June to September. Beer gardens are now an important part of the Germany experience that has now spread to all parts of Germany.

Spendings by international visitors to Germany on business travel including an overnight stay have reached €13.5 billion per year. Combined with the €14.6 billion spent by domestic business travellers, business-related travel now accounts for 24 per cent of total spending in the travel sector for trips including an overnight stay – according to a recent study funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and published jointly by the BMWi and the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW). Germany has become the most popular destination for business trips among European travellers.

Germany's image as a destination for conferences and events is going from strength to strength. This is the firm belief of 91 per cent of service providers and 92 per cent of event organisers. 'Green meetings' are now an established business segment in Germany with excellent prospects for future growth. 44 per cent of event planners and 51 per cent of service providers believe that the importance of green meetings will continue to grow.

From 13 to 15 May 2012, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is hosting the 38th GTM Germany Travel Mart™ together with Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH and Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen mbH. Other important GNTB partners are Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Deutsche Bahn AG. "The GTM is the biggest event of the year for Germany's inbound travel industry and is extremely important in terms of international marketing. This is where key accounts from all over the world can come together with German suppliers," explained Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the GNTB. For medium-sized tourism providers, this platform is a unique opportunity to establish contacts within the international travel industry and to promote their latest products and services. The GTM is going green for the first time this year and is also being supported by the GNTB with a host of social media activities. Another first at the 2012 GTM is the live social media newsroom featuring multimedia content on the @gtm2012 Twitter feed and on Storify. And in another premiere, the GTM press conference is being streamed live on the GNTB website at www.germany.travel/gtmlive.

'Vibrant, fashionable, innovative'. The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) plans to use a new broad-based social media campaign to promote Germany as a travel destination around the world, particularly among young travellers. The campaign will be launched at the ITB 2013 in Berlin and will continue throughout 2013 and 2014. The planned campaign will support the theme for 2013: 'Germany for young people – vibrant, fashionable, innovative' which caters to a tourism segment offering vast economic potential. The target group is also huge, with current figures showing that about a third of all international visitors to Germany are under the age of 39. "Young people visiting from abroad today are Destination Germany's future holidaymakers and business travellers. They are becoming an ever more important target group, especially as domestic tourism will be increasingly affected by demographic change," said Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the GNTB.

Echoing Germany’s success from around the world, the overnights by American visitors to Germany increased by 1.1 percent in January 2012 for a total of 244,912 according to the latest federal statistics. “It is a bright and positive start in the new year,” said Bernd Haessler, Acting Regional Manager of the Americas for the German National Tourist Office (GNTO).

Germany has become a magnet for the young, innovative, inspiring and aspiring artists, architects, designers and creators. International artists, architects, designers and musicians are flocking to Germany to be part of the creativity and cool events.

The Easter celebrations are among the oldest, most traditional and unique celebrations in Germany. A myriad of differing regional traditions, Easter markets and special celebrations start weeks before the four day Easter weekend from April 5 to April 9, 2012.

The kick-off event for the theme year 2012 "Business Travel to Germany" in New York organized by the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) in cooperation with the German Convention Bureau (GCB) gave 60 journalists and meeting planners the chance to find out about Germany as a top travel destination for the business traveler.

Germany is more popular than ever as a travel destination and achieved impressive figures last year despite the tough global economic situation. In 2011, Destination Germany beat the record set in the previous year by reaching 63.7 million overnight stays by foreign visitors.

dOCUMENTA: a pivotal feature of the global art scene. A mirror on society and a showcase for international art, dOCUMENTA in Kassel has rapidly become one of the world's foremost recurring exhibitions for contemporary art. It will be held for the 13th time next year.

Destination Germany continues to post excellent results for the final months of 2011. Despite the tense global economic situation, and with only December's figures to come, the German travel industry is on course to finish the year on a high. In November, the German Federal Statistical Office recorded a 6 per cent year-on-year increase in the volume of overnight stays made by international guests.

Countless travel guides and surveys provide information about the most popular attractions in Germany. But now, in its own survey, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is turning directly to the people who have already visited the country in order to find the top 100 must-see attractions in Destination Germany. The results are being incorporated into a special app which will be available starting this summer in English and German for Apple and Android devices.