The ITB is without a doubt the largest travel trade show in the world, and takes place every year in March in Berlin.

The show is enormous, and covers pretty much every aspect of tourism, with trade visitors from every sector of the tourism industry, such as tourism organizations, tour operators, agency counter staff, hotel managers, website publishers, and conventional world media.

The Exhibitors at the ITB come from all sectors of the international travel and tourism industry and include government tourism offices, national and regional tourism organizations, tour operators, hotels, airline carriers, insurance companies, communication and information systems, travel agencies, publishing, and dot com companies. The ITB also has consumer days where consumers are allowed in to see what the worlds travel industry has to offer.

We can not exaggerate how big this show is, according to a Berlin taxi driver we asked it is the biggest in Berlin and the one that brings the taxis the most business. So if you are attending make sure that you have comfortable shoes, as it stretches over an area so big the organisers even have shuttle buses which run between the halls.

As if this were not enough to keep you occupied and probably help you loose a pound or two running from one booth to another, the show also offers many other activities. Seminars, symposia, workshops and working groups all take place, and because the worlds travel industry is under one roof with experts from all the different fields related to the international travel industry, their value is very high.

This is the biggest of the biggest, and to quote a friend from the industry, "If you are in the travel industry and not at the ITB, are you really in the travel industry....."

The 2008 ITB took place between 5-9 March, 2008. Read about the 2008 Event. The 2009 ITB will be held between 11-15 March, 2009.

See also: Travel Trade Shows - Calendar of Events and all the Latest Travel News about the ITB, such as their new Travel Bloggers Summit, and the Record Numbers of Travel Technology Exhibitors expected in 2008.

*Information and general review of the mammoth ITB*

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Information and general review of the mammoth ITB