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First we took Vancouver, then we took Berlin (with apologies to Montréal, QC’s favourite son Leonard Cohen). Canada and the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) continued where they’d left off at the 2010 Winter Games by joining “the world’s leading travel trade show” in Germany last week.

ITB Berlin is a bumper biz-to-biz tourism trade show with more than 11,000 exhibitors from 187 countries, up from last year’s total. It drew a 180,000-plus crowd from March 10 to 14, with some 110,000 visitors from all levels of the tourism industry: tour operators, airlines, destinations, car rental companies and hotels.

The commission’s Germany office had a substantial presence at the Berlin show. A pavilion housed 45 exhibitors that included most Canadian provinces and territories, plus airlines, hotels and tour operators. Part of the show is the tourism Oscars—Das Goldene Stadttor—and CTC picked up three awards. “Kanada für Entdecker” (Canada for Explorers) took gold in the “Region” category. “Four Host First Nations” claimed gold in the “Events” category. And “Clever Women TV—CANASTASIA—5 Jahre Clever Women” won bronze in the “Innovation” category.  

One of ITB-Berlin’s annual highlights is CTC’s high-end event for all partners, trade and media reps at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, close to famous Potsdamer Platz. This year did not disappoint, with three-time Juno Award-winner Susan Aglukark regaling the crowd on March 11.

The Inuk singer/songwriter followed majestically in the footsteps of other special guests. In the past five years these have included Alberta-born soprano and musical star Anna Maria Kaufmann, who was also one of the international torchbearers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, and the Canadian Tenors.

The commission’s principal ITB partners were Air Canada, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Delta Hotels, Tourism British Columbia, Travel Alberta, Tourism Yukon, Ontario Tourism, Tourisme Québec, Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership and Travel Manitoba. German firm Niessing Manufaktur provided jewellery with Canadian diamonds as raffle prizes.

“The wow factor from all the great coverage Canada received in Germany during the Games made our pavilion a very busy and happy place,” said Karl-Heinz Limberg, CTC-Germany managing director. “Industry and consumers were very enthusiastic, which we hope will lead to a surge in bookings over the coming weeks.”