Full House in the Hotels Plus Invaluable Advertising

August 24, 2009

- Berlin Tourismus Marketing Takes Stock of a Successful World Athletics Championship

BERLIN, August 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin came to a successful end yesterday. In the words of Burkhard Kieker, Director of Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH (BTM), "With an air of enthusiasm in the Olympic Stadium and a fantastic atmosphere throughout the city, Berlin has shown itself to be an outstanding host. The city was full and hotel reservations were well up. Many visitors had made a snap decision to attend over the past few days."

Over the last 9 days, around 400 000 visitors have come to the Berlin Olympic Stadium to watch the competitions. The weekend street tournaments attracted around 1.3 million spectators. On average, the Berlin hotels were 80% full - and August is not a month that is generally acknowledged as one of the traditional months for city breaks. But it is not only the hotels that have benefited from the World Championship - each visitor to a major sporting event spends around 500 Euros during their stay.

The advertising impact of the World Athletics Championship is invaluable as far as the German capital is concerned. More than 2 500 media representatives have spent a total of nine days reporting on Berlin; the images have been beamed to some 4 thousand million television viewers all round the world. In Germany alone more than 5.5 million people sat down every evening to watch the events on their screens. Kieker's verdict: "These images are authentic and their effect will be long term; for us they mean cash. It is these images that will win for us today the Berlin visitors of tomorrow."

    
    Contact: Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH / Press and PR Office
    Christian Tänzler, Media Relations Manager / Press Officer
    Tel.: +49(0)30-26-47-48-912
    Fax: +49(0)30-26-47-48-983
    Am Karlsbad 11 / D-10785 Berlin
    christian.taenzler@btm.de
    http://www.visitBerlin.de