Frankfurt am Main / Hamburg - The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has agreed a comprehensive marketing campaign with the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee Germany. With numerous activities, the GNTB is using this sporting event to develop Germany\'s presence and enhance its image as an international travel destination. In the run-up to the Football World Cup, the GNTB will deploy its full range of sales and marketing tools through its 28 foreign representative offices. The GNTB is using trade fairs, workshops, fact-finding tours to the cities hosting the FIFA World Cup, as well as an extensive range of promotional materials, to inform the international public about packages and services offered around this major football event. The main promotional vehicle will be a dedicated image brochure for Germany in relation to the 2006 FIFA World CupTM showcasing Germany as a travel destination and featuring the twelve host cities, which will be published this autumn in 12 languages in the main source markets and countries where football is especially popular. There will also be an e-book on the GNTB website as a key communication tool, plus direct mailshots and various publications in print.

As a major event attracting international visitors, the Football World Cup represents an important opportunity for the German travel industry\", said Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the GNTB. More than 75 million football players, 200,000 football clubs and 80,000 professional footballers from around the world will be showing a greater interest in Germany, and a total of more than 40 billion viewers will be following the global coverage of the World Cup on their televisions. \"We see the 2006 FIFA World Cup GermanyTM as an incredible opportunity, especially in terms of presenting Germany as a welcoming and service-oriented country,\" Hedorfer added. \"In addition to attention to detail and excellent organisation, we will also be able to demonstrate our capacity for hospitality and enthusiasm - that is the message we wish to convey to the world with this event\", according to the head of the GNTB.

Based on the experiences of previous major sporting events, the GNTB is expecting to see sales increases in the hotel and catering industry as a result of the World Cup from as early as the beginning of 2004. During the event itself in June 2006, the German travel industry will enjoy a further substantial boom; during the European Football Championship in 2000, Belgium and the Netherlands recorded a double-figure sales increase in the month of the competition. For 2006 as a whole, the GNTB is expecting the number of overnight stays to rise from 4.8 to 5.2 million (around 1.7 per cent) as a result of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The head of the GNTB is also optimistic about the long-term effects that this major sporting event will have on the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events (MICE) sector.