CENTRAL EUROPEAN OFFICE

Transcription

1 CENTRAL EUROPEAN OFFICE M A R C H 2007 Prepared by: Barbara Schuch-Beckers Director Central Europe MARKET TREND/MARKET INFORMATION TUI and First Choice create tourism giant Another mega-merger in the tourism business. TUI and Britain s First Choice announced today they will merge their tourism activities into a joint venture, TUI Travel PLC. TUI will hold 51% in the stock exchange-listed company. Peter Long, First Choice CEO, will head TUI Travel. Just weeks after Thomas Cook and MyTravel announced the biggest merger in the European travel industry for years, TUI has upstaged its German rival with an agreement to merge its travel business with Britain s First Choice. The deal creates an enlarged European market leader with turnover of some 18 billion, substantially ahead of the future Thomas Cook PLC ( 12 billion). After weekend negotiations, the plan was presented by TUI chairman Michael Frenzel and First Choice CEO Peter Long, who will head the new company, at a news conference in Hamburg. Based on 2006 figures, TUI Travel PLC will have annual revenue of some 18 billion, EBITA of around 475 million and some 27 million customers. Under the deal, TUI will transfer its tourism division, excluding its hotel activities, into a newly-founded company that will then buy First Choice. The transaction will be financed by a share exchange, leaving TUI with 51% and existing First Choice shareholders with 49% in the new TUI Travel PLC. This company will be headquartered in the UK and will be floated on the London stock exchange. The deal was approved by the TUI supervisory board on Sunday, and is now subject to approval by the existing shareholders of First Choice and the relevant anti-trust authorities. 1

2 Chief Executive Officer designate of the new company is Peter Long, currently Chief Executive of First Choice. TUI chairman Michael Frenzel will be chairman of the board of directors and First Choice chairman Sir Mike Hodgkinson will be the Non-Executive Deputy Chairman. Other members of the 17-strong board will include Peter Rothwell (Deputy Chief Executive), Paul Bowtell (Chief Financial Officer), Will Waggott (Group Commercial Director), Christoph R. Mueller (Aviation Director) and Volker Böttcher (Managing Director Central Europe). This combination means that all operative divisions will be represented on the TUI Travel board. We are creating one of the most profitable and efficient tourism groups in the world, said Michael Frenzel. At just the right time two strong partners are joining forces: TUI Travel PLC is clearly aiming at growth and simultaneously will make good use of the opportunities presented by the ongoing consolidation in the European travel market. The different strengths of the two partners represent an excellent fit, Peter Long stressed. TUI is clearly the market leader in traditional beach package holidays. And over the past few years First Choice has successfully expanded in the modular travel segment and in certain niche markets, and in doing so has achieved above average returns. Both partners will benefit from the know how of the other. Although TUI is much larger than First Choice, the British firm has a much better profit margin of 5% thanks to its focus on profitable niche products. TUI Travel PLC is aiming for synergies worth 146 million over the next three years. These will mostly be in the British market and will be achieved through joint administration, a joint fleet and flight planning for the airlines, a common IT infrastructure and a more efficient use of marketing instruments. TUI and First Choice said they could not yet say how many jobs would be lost in the UK as a result of the merger. In Britain, Thomsonfly has 34 jets while First Choice Airways has 32 planes, and has ordered B787 Dreamliners for long-haul flights. TUI UK has some 750 travel agencies while First Choice has 300 travel shops and 38 holiday hypermarkets. Jobs in Germany will not be directly affected by the merger. Following the merger, the established First Choice brands in Britain would be retained while its small continental European subsidiaries would be merged into TUI s continental European organisation, said Peter Long. These include Turkey specialist Nazar (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia) and Mamara (France). First Choice is also active in North America through Intrav, which it bought from Kuoni. First Choice put its mainstream package holiday business up for sale several months ago, attracting interest from Thomas Cook, MyTravel and the Virgin Group. But it then postponed this following the merger agreement between Thomas Cook and MyTravel. TUI stepped in 2

3 several weeks ago to start negotiations but focused on a cash-free merger rather than an expensive acquisition. No more Fortress America Bosses hope friendlier stand design at ITB signals determination to provide a warmer welcome for overseas visitors Sara Macefield The US is opening up to welcome back more tourists and prove that it is ready for business. The country s leading tourist spots are determined to shrug off the country s negative image and attract visitors deterred by its policy over Iraq and strict immigration procedures. The new spirit of openness was reflected in the revamped US hall at ITB where, for the first time in years, stands were designed to welcome the public in rather than confine everyone other than invited visitors to the edges. US exhibitors said the new layout has been well received by tour operators. ITB has a really positive buzz this year, said Visit Florida sales vice-president Eileen Forrow. I m delighted that we don t have Fortress America any more it looks more friendly. Florida is hoping the positive approach translates into a better year after a flat performance in While official figures have yet to be released, the Sunshine State fears international business fell after European arrivals appeared to remain static. Conversely, New York is celebrating after notching up 44 million visitors last year, including seven million international travelers an increase of 3.3 per cent over We have now exceeded pre-9/11 numbers, said international marketing director for New York State, Markly Wilson. It s not been easy, but we are there again. New England also enjoyed strong European business as the weak dollar helped to draw travellers. New England has done remarkably well. Our numbers were very strong for Germany, said Discover New England managing director Jackie Ennis. California has good reason to be bullish too. It has millions more marketing dollars to spend after its tourism budget was boosted from nine million to 38 million euros. It is very exciting, said California Tourism travel trade manager Percy Stevens. Having deep pockets means we can do much more. 3

4 ITB - New records set in 2007 ITB 2007 set new records for the number of exhibitors and trade visitors, attracted more international participants than ever and successfully developed the range of conferences and other events. The world s leading trade fair for the travel industry clocked up more records this year, organizer Messe Berlin has announced. At this year s show, which took place from March 7-11, the number of trade visitors broke the 100,000 barrier for the first time. Between Wednesday and Friday, 108,735 trade visitors were recorded, a 15% rise. The proportion of international trade visitors continued to rise, and was up two percentage points at 43% of the total. With 10,923 companies from 184 countries, a new record was also set for the number of exhibitors. As many as 97% of exhibitors were satisfied with the commercial results of their participation, which was a 5% improvement on last year, Messe Berlin said. The ITB Convention Market Trends & Innovations proved to be a major attraction, with participation up by 25% to more than 9,000 trade visitors. On the Saturday and Sunday, which were open to the public, 68,419 consumers visited ITB, a slight rise on last year. Dr. Christian Göke, COO of Messe Berlin, said that ITB had again strengthened its position as the world s leading marketing platform for the travel industry. He highlighted the success of having the first three days (Wednesday to Friday) reserved exclusively for trade visitors, and noted that business was still being done late on Friday and on the Saturday. Klaus Laepple, President of the National Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW) and President of the German Tour Operators and Travel Agents Association (DRV), added: As the world s top event for the travel industry the ITB was a massive success. Tour operators and travel agencies are confident that last year s positive trend will be continued and that the travel sector will finish the year with further increases. Francesco Frangialli, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), emphasised the importance of the discussions about climate change. ITB 2007 was a landmark event at which the industry began to support our call for a proactive global strategy to respond constructively to the new demands of climate change without compromising on the basic challenge of using tourism as a tool to fight poverty, he commented. ITB 2008 will take place from Wednesday, March 5, to Sunday, March 9. The first three days will again be trade-only. 4

5 Kuoni - Record profits mark centenary Kuoni has announced record profits for 2006 to celebrate its 100th anniversary and stressed that it is strong and large enough to be a successful independent player in the European travel industry. Bookings for 2007 are up 16%. Kuoni increased turnover by 10.7% last year to CHF 4,082 million, including organic growth of 7.9%. The company returned to the black, reporting a best-ever net result of CHF million following its net loss of CHF 42.0 million in 2005 as a result of extraordinary items. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew by 1.1% to CHF million despite restructuring costs and depreciation on intangible assets relating to acquisitions. The Kuoni Group marked the hundredth anniversary of its foundation with a return to its old strengths, said CEO Armin Meier. This performance confirms to us that we are on the right track. The strong organic growth meant that Kuoni was growing faster than the overall market, he noted. Acquisitions of premium and specialist operators included Avontuur (Netherlands), Distant Frontiers (India), Kontiki-Saga Reisen (Switzerland), Holiday Supplies / Journeys of Distinction and Kirker Holidays (both UK) and Asian Trails (Southeast Asia). In its home Swiss market, Kuoni increased turnover by 15.8% to CHF 981 million, thanks mostly to organic growth in the long-haul segment and the acquisition of Kontiki-Saga Reisen. But EBIT dropped from CHF 26.7 million in 2005 to CHF 13.6 million due to over-capacity in the beach holiday segment and initial losses at its newly-opened Las Playitas Grand Resort on Fuerteventura. Kuoni s Swedish, Norwegian and Danish-based companies increased turnover by 13.9% to CHF 802 million and EBIT was up by 19.3% to CHF 29.1 million. The UK reported a 9.4% fall to turnover of CHF 698 million, partly due to sale of Intrav, its former loss-making US-based subsidiary, but also due to lower demand for long-haul travel. But EBIT improved by 7.5% to CHF 52.9 million due to the Intrav sale. In the rest of Europe, turnover rose by 12.2% to CHF 669 million due to better demand for Southeast Asia, strong demand in Spain and the Netherlands and despite lower volumes for the USA and the Middle East. EBIT improved 33.8% to CHF 19.4 million. The Strategic Business Unit Asia & Destination Management posted above-average growth with turnover up by 21.9% to CHF 1,013 million and EBIT up by 25.4% to CHF 34.6 million. For 2007, Kuoni currently has a group-wide bookings increase of 16%, with strong growth in key markets such as Switzerland (+17%), Scandinavia (+14%) and the UK (+15%). Against a background of consolidation in the European travel sector, the company stressed that it is big 5

6 enough to remain an independent player. Priorities for 2007 include developing online sales, a clear focus on the premium segment and individual holidays, and its position in growth markets. TUI - German growth outpaces UK sales TUI has stronger summer sales in Germany than in Britain at present. The group is targeting higher tourism profits in 2007 after announcing a heavy net loss for 2006 due to large-scale depreciations and restructuring costs. TUI Germany is currently outpacing the rest of the TUI Group for summer 2007 bookings. In overall terms, the TUI group has a 7.2% rise in the number of guests, while booked sales are up by 4.7%. TUI will close the winter 2006/07 season with a 5.4% sales increase and 9% more guests compared with the previous winter season and claims it will win market share on the basis of above-average growth. For the full year, TUI said that it expects tourism turnover of up to 15 billion excluding First Choice and operating profits of between 450 million and 550 million. In 2006, TUI increased tourism profits by 9.5% to 401 million after adjustment for special influences, with turnover stagnant at about 14.1 billion. In Germany, booked revenues for the summer season starting in April are currently up by 7% and customer numbers are showing an 8.9% rise. This follows turnover growth of 4.5% and an 8.6% increase in customers for the winter season that ends on March 31. The Central Europe division, which also includes Austria, Switzerland and Poland, ended the winter season with a 5.7% sales increase and currently has a 9% rise for the summer. TUI said that it assumes Central Europe can repeat last year s good results in The region increased customer numbers by 2.5% to 10.5 million in 2006 while sales increased slightly by 0.9% to 5.8 billion. Its underlying result at 115 million, adjusted by 26 million for restructuring costs, was up by 74.7%, while reported earnings improved by 35.8% to 90 million. The main success factors were higher profits from flight operations and increased tour operator passenger numbers. Results for Northern Europe, covering the UK and Nordic countries, should be stabilized this year by the restructuring program in Britain, TUI said. It did not publish current booking figures or targets for this year for the region. In 2006, Northern Europe increased guest numbers by 2.1% to 7 million but sales fell fractionally to 4.8 billion. Sales fell in the UK and Ireland but rose in Scandinavia. The unit increased its underlying result by 19.1% to 135 million, when adjusted for special items including 50 million in restructuring expenses. Including this cost, reported earnings dropped to 81 million from 103 million. 6

7 An improving market environment in France should generate improved results for its Western Europe region this year, TUI said. In 2006, passenger numbers dropped slightly to 4.39 million but sales increased by 2.2% to 2.82 billion, largely thanks to growth and higher profits in Belgium and The Netherlands. But lower sales in France due to lower demand and over-capacity meant the unit ended with EBITA of minus 54 million compared to a loss of 3 million the previous year. TUI is also predicting higher profits this year in its Destinations unit, covering incoming agencies and hotels. In 2006, the unit s sales rose by 12.5% to 599 million. The underlying financial result was stable at 173 million, adjusted for one-off effects, including a 30 million depreciation of hotel facilities in Turkey. The unit s reported result of 136 million was considerably below the previous year's figure of 185 million. TUI AG as a whole, including the shipping business, closed fiscal year 2006 with a 6.6% rise in sales to 20.9 billion. As expected, TUI incorporated restructuring expenses and depreciations on goodwill totaling 710 million and additional asset depreciations of 54 million into its 2006 results. This left the group with a large-scale net loss of 847 million for Rewe - No threat from mega-mergers Europe s third-largest tourism group, Rewe Touristik, sees no impact from the latest TUI and Thomas Cook deals. But it is not ruling out selective acquisitions in core markets. Rewe Touristik chief Norbert Fiebig Rewe Touristik chief Norbert Fiebig found clear words at Monday s annual results press conference to describe the TUI First Choice and Thomas Cook MyTravel deals in comparison to the company s own market position. The latest mergers in the tourism industry have no direct consequences for the Rewe Group tourism business. With their mergers, both competitors have above all significantly broadened their activities in the traditional segments of package holidays. It essentially affects the source markets of Britain and Scandinavia, and not our core markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe, Fiebig stated. In these markets we will reinforce our good market position and expand it through above-average organic growth and possibly with strategically sensible complementary acquisitions, he added. Rewe s tour operators had a bookings increase of 3-4% in the first quarter of 2007, and Fiebig said he was optimistic for the rest of this year. In 2006, against the background of avian flu, terror threats and the World Cup in Germany, Rewe Touristik, including its large travel agency 7

8 chain, increased turnover by 0.5% to 4.3 billion. Fiebig, who is also finance chief of the Rewe Group, said the group was satisfied with sales and the stable profit level in view of tourism market trends last year. The tour operating business increased sales by 2%. The number of own Atlas Reisen and DER travel agencies declined by 4.7% to 662 outlets, and sales turnover fell 2.6% to 1.8 billion. The Rewe Group as a whole increased turnover by 4.2% to 43.5 billion last year, and EBITA improved by 24.9% to a record of million. SALES ACTIVITIES From March 6 until March 11, we attended ITB in Berlin, the world s largest tourism fair was the year with the most trade visitors ever more than came to the show. The number of exhibitors amounted to , a 6% increase over last year. We met with many of our industry partners, tour operator product managers, airline representatives as well as the trade press. Some of the most important meetings and discussions which were held at our booth are listed below: lastminute.com - we met with Alistair Edmands, Business Development Manager to further discuss our already approved joint website promotion. Together with Orlando, a newsletter will be sent to subscribers of lastminute.com. In addition, we shall place our banner and information on the websites of the daughter companies, Holiday Autos and travelocity,de. This promotion will last 4 weeks and is planned for April Chair Commissioner Duncan brought up the subject of promoting cruise business out of Tampa more intensely. The St.Petersburg/Clearwater area could profit from passengers who would like to extend their stay after the cruise and spend some time on the beaches. This subject will be taken up by head office. We met with Kimberley Long-Urbanetz Regional Sales Manager Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania + Switzerland and with Thomas Brandt, newly appointed Sales Manager Germany of Delta Air Lines who informed us about the various new destinations which Delta Air Lines flies to in Europe. We have discussed a possible training trip to Orlando and our area for travel agents from these new markets to be conducted in fall of We shall work on this project. 4. Dertour management, namely Per Illian Director North America and Katja Wagner Product Manager North America visited our booth at ITB. We agreed to jointly produce posters which will be distributed to travel agencies throughout Germany during April 07. In addition, Dertour plans a so-called Top 100 movement, whereby the tour operator will send their top 100 best selling travel agents to a familiarization trip. 8

9 St.Petersburg/Clearwater has expressed interest to host this most important group together with Orlando possibly at the end of April Meanwhile we have received the confirmation from both our headoffice and Dertour for this project. 5. Silverjet Vakanties is a Dutch tour operator for the upscale market. We talked to Ellen Schulten, Product Manager and she has already confirmed in writing, that she will include 1 or two of our properties in the coming winter brochure. 6. Simon Doerrien, Director Sales & Marketing Central Europe and Maggie Warnecke, Marketing & PR Executive of Martinair reported that their business to Florida has decreased during the first 2 months in We shall continue our joint promotions with this carrier one of which will be featuring the St.Petersburg/Clearwater area in the Martinair newsletter to all travel agents in Germany in fall of this year. Topic in our editorial will be the Superior Small Lodgings Program. 7. We met with Philip Chryst, Visit Florida Director of Europe and discussed our upcoming joint sales mission which will take us to Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt during the month of May. We shall present St.Petersburg/Clearwater to approx. 300 travel agents during this road show. 8. Heike Pabst, Head of Department tour operator FTI North America, reported a strong increase in passenger numbers to the St.Petersburg/Clearwater area. All of Florida has a 9% increase in bookings for summer 2007, our area however, is already 21% over last year for the summer 2007 and the winter 2006/2007 was concluded with a 20% increase in passenger numbers. We will conduct a joint training trip with FTI to Orlando and our area in May of this year. 9. Wolfgang Neumann is the owner of Golf Fee Card International. The company sells a golf card to end consumers, which grants special arrangements in partner hotels and on golf courses. Several golf courses and hotels in our area have already signed up with the program, however, Mr. Neumann is looking for additional properties interested to join. 10. TUI Germany, Product Manager Heidrun Steidle will supply us with a marketing proposal for the coming business year. We are interested in cooperating even closer with this important operator, which has just merged with the British First Choice group. 11. Walter Krombach, Managing Director and Sandra Albrecht, Office Manager of the Willy Scharnow Donation paid us a visit. Willy Scharnow is part of the DRV (German Travel Association). The organization supports young travel agents with educational programs has been nominated as USA year for the Donation. Since 12 years, a group of approximately 20 German travel agents selected by Scharnow do visit our area. The next group is already booked for November The America Journal, Germany s only travel magazine focusing on the USA and Canada took an interview with Chair Commissioner Ronnie Duncan. 9

10 13. Tilo Krause-Duenow, Owner and Karin Buhse- Product Manager of Canusa Touristik reported that our joint website promotion together with Orlando so far is very successful. A final report will be received in a few weeks. 14. Hotelplan, after acquiring tour operator Sky Tours, now is Switzerland s largest tour operation company. We met with Esther Schneiter, Head of Product Management USA and Daniel Staehli, Product Management. We support Hotelplan with our advertisement in their winter and summer catalogues and also are part of a poster program as the only Florida partner. 15. We had a meeting with Inka Roeck, Head of Sales and Partner Integration Central Europe of expedia.de. Our advertisement agency plans a comprehensive promotion still in 2007 and Ms. Roeck gave us a good presentation of what could be accomplished. 16. Meier s Weltreisen is part of the REWE/Dertour group and a very important U.S. oriented tour operator in Germany. We met with Heike Pleuter, Product Manager North America and discussed a joint program with Orlando whereby we would like to introduce our destinations to a group of approximately 120 selected customers and travel agents in The complete Product Management of Kuoni Netherlands paid us a visit. Kuoni is one of Holland s largest operators presently featuring three properties in our area. There is interest to extend the program and this will be further discussed during Pow Wow. 18. Tom on Tour, Ltd. publishes a gay magazine which features the USA as a travel destination. St.Petersburg/Clearwater advertises in this publication with a 2 page advertorial. We discussed a continuation of this program in Skytours Switzerland, a medium sized tour operator has been a very close partner of our area for many years. Newly appointed Senior Product Manager, Beat Diggelmann confirmed that our joint promotional program including an e-newsletter to 70,000 addresses, flyers being distributed at five major tourism fairs as well as a joint winning game is running very well. We shall report on the final results as soon as available. 20. We had a meeting with the management of FVW (Fremdenverkehrswirtschaft Germany s largest trade paper) regarding advertisement opportunities in the next business year. We have just produced an insert in their travel magazine Urlaub Perfekt which was very successful. 21. There is no Austrian owned tour operator left in Austria. The major operators in the country are German and Swiss companies. We met with Karin Ochenbauer, General Manager and Horst Wurm, Product Manager of amerikareisen.at. The company is a member of the Five Star Group, a German/Austrian business alliance. We have been offered a St.Petersburg/Clearwater newsletter to be featured on the amerikareisen.at website. 10

11 22. The new Commercial Director Germany of British Airways, Mr. Paolo De Renzis, was introduced to us by Brigitte Geschwind, Support Manager Leisure Sales Central Europe. BA is a very good interline partner to us. St.Petersburg/Clearwater has just recently been featured on their so-called speedbird club website which addresses travel agents in the country. We shall work on further programs later this year. 23. OpenTS GmbH. is a German website company, which acts as an information platform for the travel industry. They call themselves the leading travel industry knowledge database in Germany. We have been offered a special introduction rate for our advertisement on their website. 24. We met with Colette Ernst, Head of Product North America and Claudia Weiland, Product Manager of Kuoni Travel Ltd., now the no. 2 operator in Switzerland. For years, St.Petersburg/Clearwater has been a good partner of this company and conducted a large number of sales promotions with them. We are now discussing a joint training trip for selected Kuoni travel agents in Austria. 25. We had a meeting with the Trade Counselor of the American Embassy in Berlin, Mr. William Czajkowski. The Embassy s Commercial Section has been of great help to us over the years with various joint programs such as the so-called Golden Key Service and their statistics made available for all of our markets. We shall approach the Commercial Section again for assistance when making sales calls in the East European countries latest next year. We followed special evening invitations by the publication house America Journal as well as German tour operator Canusa Touristik. During ITB, the Orlando CVB delegates as well as the St.Petersburg/Clearwater CVB delegation celebrated their 10 year anniversary of cooperation on the Central European market. To this dinner event, we invited our most important industry partners, such as tour operator product managers, organization heads such as Willy Scharnow and publishers of the trade press such as the America Journal and FVW. The turnout was very good and everyone confirmed how pleased they are with the results of our partnership. St.Petersburg/Clearwater has signed up for a participation continuation of the Visit USA Germany E-learning program. In 2006, more than German travel agents participated in this program. A total of 885 agents passed all tests and became USA Specialists. This year s course offers those agents advanced knowledge about the various U.S. destinations and tourism providers. On two pages our area will be featured with as much information as possible. In addition, four questions on St.Petersburg/Clearwater which refer to the content will have to be answered by the participants. After successfully 11

12 completing this program, the agents will be appointed U.S.A. Experts. The course will start in April and be on-line for one year. The Sheraton Sand Key Resort has agreed to sponsor 7 nights accommodation for the winner of a final contest. We followed an invitation by Dertour at their headquarters in Frankfurt. Invited were only tourism offices in Germany. This was the first time ever, that a tour operator made a special presentation for their tourism offices partners. Theme of the evening was Create the future with us. The presentation was made by Dertour s Managing Director, Michael Frese, and in addition a comprehensive survey was introduced titled Social structure changes and their effects. This was a very informative event. St.Petersburg/Clearwater has been good partners with Dertour for years. We advertise in the operator s catalogues and conduct several marketing activities together throughout each year. On March 5 we were partner at the Visit Florida luncheon in Brussels. Altogether 34 participants followed this invitation with representatives of different areas in Florida, trade press, US airlines, tour operators, Visit USA committees and the US Embassy. Each Florida partner had the opportunity to greet the guests and make a short introduction of the area. During the three hours luncheon we had some interesting conversation with our customers and industry partners. Also on March 5 in Brussels we attended the General Assembly of the Visit USA Committee Belgium. The organization currently has 103 members. A very positive summary for the year 2006 was presented: whilst the visitor numbers from Belgium to USA were in 2005 an increase of 1% is expected in 2006 and for 2007 even 5% airline tickets were sold to the USA in 2006 for about 208 million EUROs. New York still is the number one airport and Florida is on 6 th and 7 th place with Miami and Orlando. So far, there are six daily flights to USA out of Belgium and this number will be increased in 2007 by three additional connections, so by end of the year there will be nine daily flights to the United States. In the evening of March 5, the yearly Visit USA workshop was opened to the trade and trade press. During this three hour event, 232 travel trade members visited the workshop out of which 21 were press/media. The St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area had a table in the Florida section and handed out the actual visitor guide as well as maps, posters, CDRoms and additional information like the superior small lodgings and golf brochures. Agents could ask questions and get information about the area and the media was informed about what s new in St. Petersburg/Clearwater. 12

13 On March 15 we were the partner of Thomas Cook in their Thomas Cook/Neckermann Reisen roadshow in Frankfurt. During a five hour training, 55 travel agents were informed about the news in the Thomas Cook and Neckermann program as well as in booking tools to use in their agencies. In this training session we were the only destination partner and got the opportunity to show the agents the highlights and booking arguments of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area in a half hour power point presentation. Also individual questions were answered in the break times. During the month of March, we received the following number of inquiries: Trade 6 Consumer 45 TRAINING TRIPS Head office presently works on the final program for our training trip with tour operator FTI in Munich. So far, the Belleview Biltmore has agreed to house the 10 travel agents and 2 escorts and several other properties, which are part of the FTI program will sponsor breakfasts. We do hope that the rest of the program can be confirmed to the operator soon. The group is due to arrive in St.Petersburg/Clearwater on May 7 and will stay 3 nights. PUBLIC RELATIONS So far, we have received 79 addresses of people who contacted the America Journal regarding our advertisement in the March/April issue. Our mailing house has supplied everyone with our information material. The Visit USA Committee Austria has created a newsletter format which will be sent regularly to approx Austrian travel agents. Every destination featured, will be charged with a relatively small amount to be discussed. However, the first newsletter was already sent out as a sample and free of charge. It dealt with Florida and St.Petersburg/Clearwater has a major part in it. 13

14 Our winning game in Travel One together with Martinair and the Belleview Biltmore Resort was finalized. Over 550 travel agents from all over Germany sent in their answers and the winner was drawn out of this list: Ms. Beate Genenger of First Reisebüro Moenchengladbach GmbH. This will be her first time in Florida and she is really looking forward to come over to our area. We assisted Ms. Nikole Strziga of TOURS Magazin with accommodation for one night in our area. She plans a roundtrip through Florida Mar , 2007 and would like to include the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area in her trip and report. We were able to get the last minute requested one night accommodation for her at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort confirmed and she will meet with our PR department during her visit. The travel magazine TOURS features comprehensive reports from journeys throughout the world. Ms. Strziga will write about Florida after her return to Munich. The print run of the Magazine will come to magazines with a full extent of 120 pages containing articles about plenty of outstanding destinations. TOURS Reisemagazin appears every second month and is mainly sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - but also has additional subscribers from all over the world. We have been contacted for participation in an newsletter of the gay travel portal Tom On Tour. It is planned to send this newsletter out to about 5000 describers in Europe. After contacting Mr. Tom Dedek, owner of TOM Consulting with Tom on Tour, he advised us that this project will be postponed until they set up a new website in the next few months. Tom On Tour will then contact us again for future newsletters. For our winning game in Urlaub Perfekt together with our airline partner Martinair, a winner was drawn. This raffle attracted participants, which was a great success. By sending in the answer coupon the participants also got the choice to request the visitor guide of our area and they made heavily use of it. Mr. Juergen Schindler from Rotenburg was the lucky winner. 14

15 Monthly Sales Activity Report Attach lists of calls, leads # Sales Calls # Sales Leads # TA Educ Workshop # Press Contacts # Trade Mailed # Vis Inq Mailed # Trade Shows October November December January February March April May June July August September 15