The Emerald City (aka ITB Berlin)

09/03/2008 posted by Jo Allen - We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz…actually that is not quite true but going to ITB is a little like going to Oz – just missing the yellow brick road. All the other ingredients are present – the spectacular city (all 26 halls of it!), the munchkins (or in this case promoters and dancing girls), the witches (hanging around in Hall 12 – looking rather more like the good witch than the wicked one!) and the wizard (who could be found at the Phocuswright conference!).

Having launched gaypedia in January this year, we were keen to see who was going to be in Hall 12 and assess the competition. However, there turned out to be little competition and instead we met some interesting possible partners including Attitude Hotels who have just launched their portfolio of attractive gay properties. Pedro Castro, their founder and CEO was kind enough to share a glass of champagne with us and he is pictured here with Sascha (who actually had two glasses!).

The gay travel market is expanding rapidly and we wish Pedro and his team lots of success with his target of having 100 hotels in his portfolio by the end of 2008.

Frankly, Hall 12 is just too small to house the gay travel providers/suppliers and we hope that ITB will take this on board and give this fast-growing travel segment more space next year. If this happens then perhaps we will see you all there in March 2009….