Petra Hedorfer
The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) will increase its marketing activities in four South-east Asian markets next year, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Spearheading the efforts is a marketing office to be set up in Singapore to look after the aforementioned markets and to carry out promotional activities aimed at the travel trade, consumers and media.
GNTB’s international market relations manager for Asia/Australia, Till Weigl, said the decision to set up an office was made after a market research carried out in 2015 revealed that these markets showed the most potential for growth in the region.
Said CEO of GNTB Petra Hedorfer: “In 2015, about two million trips to Europe were made from these four important high-growth markets, nearly 300,000 of these were to Germany.
“By 2030, the volume of overnight stays from these four markets, which we haven’t had a presence so far, could more than double to grow from 1.4 million to 3.3 million.”
According to Till Weigl, marketing strategies to grow the South-east Asian markets will include a GNTB-led B2B roadshow with German suppliers next year to update outbound agents there selling Germany.
The focus will be on product information and to provide ideas on how to sell Germany beyond the main gateway cities with the intention of increasing average length of stay and average spend.
A social media campaign for these markets will also be introduced to generate consumer interest.
