“Guest World Summit”: Leisure & Tourism Associations Met in Berlin

(eap) Following last year’s “Industry Day” at Europa-Park, which brought together representatives of leading trade associations from the tourism, leisure, hospitality and food service sectors, a total of 20 organizations recently met again for the first “Guest World Summit” in Berlin to discuss common goals at a political level. Strategic concerns and further cooperation between the organizations were discussed at an association roundtable. The German Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (VDFU) took part in the event on behalf of the German leisure industry. Joint political impetus and ideas on key topics such as employee recruitment, competitiveness, digitalization and sustainability were also discussed.

VDFU-GF Jürgen Gevers repräsentierte die deutschen Freizeitunternehmen beim Gastwelt-Summit. During the Guest World Summit, Prof. Dr Ralf Vogler from Heilbronn University gave an advance insight into a new study by the think tank “Zukunft der Gastwelt” (Engl. “Future of the Guest World”). This study examines the organization of tourism policy at national level and in a European comparison. One of the central points of the study, which is due to be published in June this year, deals with the question of whether Germany needs its own federal ministry for tourism. As part of the meeting on 25 and 26 April, the representatives of the participating associations also took the opportunity to represent their interests at a dialogue event at the Parliamentary Society in the German Bundestag and at a parliamentary evening. Another cross-industry association meeting is to be held this autumn, with a view to transforming the format into an association forum. ■