Successful ITB Berlin 2025 with a Positive Outlook
ITB Berlin 2025 draws a successful summary. The trade fair, whose official guest country this year was Albania with the motto “Albania All Senses”, offered 400 learning sessions in addition to 5,800 exhibitors.
© Messe Berling GmbH
(eap) The International Travel Trade Show ITB Berlin 2025, which took place at Messe Berlin from March 4 to 6, draws a positive conclusion after closing the show floor and looks confidently to the coming travel year. Over the three trade visitor days, the trade fair attracted some 100,000 participants, 87 percent of whom were international. The 5,800 exhibitors at the trade fair – including many providers and destinations from the leisure industry – who presented their products and services to the public came from over 170 countries and regions.
Despite current economic and geopolitical challenges, exhibitors and trade visitors signaled how resilient, adaptable and innovation-driven the tourism industry is. This year’s ITB was dominated by megatrends such as sustainability and digital transformation – particularly characterized by artificial intelligence, e.g. for payment solutions. The ITB Convention, which featured over 200 speakers in 400 sessions, also identified a number of trends that are not only relevant to the tourism and travel market in general, but can also be applied to the leisure industry in particular: the travel market continues to grow steadily, but is also undergoing serious change! For example, social media content is becoming increasingly important in travel planning, and another trend is the desire for authentic experiences in destinations – both of which are now influencing travel planning immensely (see also our Social Media Marketing Specials in EAP 3/2022 & 4/2022)... Challenges posed by diversity, work-life balance and new work, especially by “Generation Z”, and their impact on the business climate, were also highlighted. This year, all sessions were streamed online for the first time and are also available afterwards on the ITB Berlin YouTube channel.
“ITB Berlin has made it clear that we as an industry can set the pace for sustainable and inclusive tourism only if we work together,” said Dr. Mario Tobias, CEO of Messe Berlin, commenting on the perceptible mood at ITB Berlin.
ITB Berlin 2026 will take place from March 3 to 5 and mark the 60th anniversary of the tourism trade show. With ITB Asia, ITB China and ITB India, three regional trade shows are already being organized, too, and next year another one will be added: ITB Americas will take place for the first time in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 10 to 12 November. ■
