With the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall being celebrated this year and special packages in place, the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) and Lufthansa have increased their efforts to promote German tourism in the Saudi market by holding a series of orientation workshops in Riyadh and Jeddah earlier this week. In the past, Germany was not a well-known tourist destination for Saudis as compared to Malaysia, Switzerland, England, and France, but it is now being heavily marketed. The “Welcome to Romantic Germany” campaign concluded in Jeddah last Monday with a representative of the German tourism industry promoting Germany as a new European destination for Saudis. “The Germans feel that Saudi Arabia is a very important market,” Dr. Michael Zickerick, German Consul General in Jeddah told Saudi Gazette. Many initiatives have been taken to present Germany as an exotic tourist destination for Saudis and also to introduce the Germans to the Arabs, said Antje Roeding, Director Marketing and Sales Office Gulf Countries at GNTO. “Germany is a friendly place where other cultures and lifestyles are respected and Saudi families will enjoy it there,” Dr. Zickerick said. The summer months are the best time for Saudis to visit, he said. “I was in Munich last summer and saw many people in the city who looked ‘very Saudi', and I think they had a good time. Germany respects the cultural privacy of other people. I have not heard many complaints from Saudis coming back from Germany,” Dr. Zickerick added. The Consul General narrated a story about a German who hosted a Saudi family in his country house at a time when it was raining heavily. The German was worried about the family and called them up and said in an apologetic way, “I am sorry, it is raining.” But the head of the family replied, “It is wonderful. It is wonderful.” Recently Germany has been receiving more tourists from the Kingdom, creating a capacity problem for Lufthansa. In turn, “Lufthansa has increased its flights with an ever-increasing flow of tourists from the Gulf region,” said Abdul Aziz Mangera, Lufthansa-Swiss, Regional Manager for the Western Province. In 2008, Gulf tourists spent about 830,000 overnights across Germany, an increase of 8 percent on the previous year. The average stay of a Saudi tourist is 19 nights, said Horst Lommatzsch, director of Frankfurt-based German National tourist Board. Although the Germans expect to have a good share of the Saudi tourists in Europe this summer, most Saudis spend their summer holidays in the UK and France. “We are not necessarily in competition with other European countries for the Saudi market. We just feel that we have something to offer and are inviting our Saudi friends to come and take a look,” Dr. Zickerick said. Commenting on the positive reactions from Saudi vacationers in Germany, Dr. Zickerick said that Saudis have come back from Germany with “great memories about culture, nature, and shopping. Actually, it is cheaper than London and Paris.” Not only is shopping relatively cheaper in Germany, but “there are a lot of packages on flights and hotels in Germany now. Prices on Lufthansa and Swiss Air have been reduced,” said Mangera. First contacts with the tourism industry have already been made which promise a steady flow of tourists from Saudi Arabia to Germany, said Dr. Zickerick. And at the airlines industry, they “are very confident that a lot of Saudis will visit Germany,” Mangera said. Applications for German tourist visas can be submitted to the German Embassy in the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh.
