Medical tourism is a booming industry in Germany with an annual inflow of around two-hundred and fifty thousand specific medical travelers. This industry generates an estimated 1.2 million Euros each year. Business intelligence received pegs the figure of a hundred thousand foreign patients being admitted into German hospitals each year on average. The largest source markets at present are France, Poland and the Netherlands. Source markets have wildly swerved with Russia, Eastern Europe and Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE being traditional markets, but demand falling. Medical tourism seems to work best in cities which have university or community clinics as is the case with Munich, Berlin and Dusseldorf, closely followed by Hamburg and the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/medical-tourism-in-germany-relies-on-the-gulf-news10447

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

Oktoberfest remains one of the iconic fests held in Europe. Held every year in the Bavarian region, the average visitor population remains around six million. To some surprise, nearly-three-fourths of visitors are from the Bavaria region itself, with fifty-eight percent being from the region’s biggest city- Munich. The remainder of the visitor numbers are most prominently propelled by nationals from USA, Switzerland and Italy. In 2017 the total number topped the six million figure which is substantially higher than the 2016 figure. A whopping 7.5 million liters of the signature beer was consumed this year at the fest. A lot of traditional visitors are complaining about the increasing commercialization. An interesting business innovation added this year has been the availability of organic food. This is an outcome of interest from international travelers from countries such as UK, France, Austria, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark and Spain.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/beer-festival-in-munich-growing-in-popularity-news10326

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

In 2016, the decades long cold relationship between Cuba and USA finally saw improvement. But then things worsened again. In spite of this deterioration in diplomatic terms, number of American visitors to the island nation has increased. There ahs been a jump of 217% from 2016. Canada remains the top source destination followed by the US. Visitor numbers also included a number of exiled Cuban nationals. Among traditional source markets, numbers increased from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Russia which saw the highest increase at sixty-eight percent. In spite of the devastation from Hurricane Irma, Cuba was able to generate tourism jobs due to renewed work on restoration of infrastructure.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/tourism-in-cuba-rejoices-over-more-americans-news10435

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

An IoT (Internet of Things) expert has broken down the disparate elements of the trade to explain all to generalists. A research report recently released by PwC claims shows that a third of all CEOs surveyed say that IoT will have a significant impact on business while a slightly lower percentage responded that it will completely transform their respective industries. The term was first invented at Proctor and Gamble back in 1999 and has been known by other terms such as Machine-to-Machine(M2M) and telemetry. The origins of telemetry go back to 1840 when a device was used to estimate the depth of snow at Mont Blanc. Such an IoT device must contain four major elements which are- a sensor, computing ability, connectivity anda user interface. The value proposition is almost constantly expanding, with right now digital marketing through customer engagement being one such. Its various innovations ultimately enable higher productivity by lowering down the costs and optimizing the operations. A greater sense of trust may also be built in with customers. Any IoT solution must contain a data source, a connectivity layer, a platform to perform business analytics and one to perform interactions. IoT that is scaled for mass operations is termed as the industrial internet of things. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adopted by the things on IoT. The major investors to IoT are industry players from automotive, telecom, tech, media and public-sector industries. PwC is an example of a major company already performing various tasks using IoT.

Source:http://usblogs.pwc.com/emerging-technology/qa-the-internet-of-things-iot/

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

The tiny west African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe plans to establish itself as an ecotourism hub. The country is somewhat untouched by intensive farming, so large parts of the limited landscape remains untouched. Besides tourism, the country also has blocks where oil exploration has been done, but commercial exploitation does not provide bang-per-buck here. The island country is also famous for its quality cocoa, having bene known as the chocolate islands in the past. A major obstacle for development of tourism in this former Portuguese colony of barely two-hundred thousand local residents, is the cost. A round trip from Lisbon is prohibitively expensive. Once the sector gets established, tourism jobs will provide a relief to a country where otherwise, two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/sao-tome-and-principe-to-attract-more-visitors-news10427

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018

Tourism in many ways forms the backbone of the Spanish economy. Taken as a whole, it is responsible for about a night of the national income. Tourism jobs make up fifteen percent of direct and a fourth of all indirect jobs in the country. To cite an example, tourism is to the Canary Islands,what oil is to Kuwait, resulting in two-fifths of total employment. However, the tourism model as followed in Spain is creaking and needs a drastic reorganization. This is because the model is based around values from the 1970s on sun and sand which encouraged mass, low-value tourism along the beaches. This led to overcrowding, environmental degradation, permanent feeling of seasonality of jobs and price- rise in housing. The significant economic benefits of tourism have only benefited some private parties. A collective agreement needs to be sorted to comprehensively cover different stakeholders in this industry. The objectives of the Spanish tourism industry too, needs to evolve simultaneously. A sustainable model needs to be brought in place to replace the existing Sol Y Playa model.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/spanish-tourism-industry-needs-to-be-reshaped-news10418

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018

Germans are amongst the world’s highest international travellers, yet there are very few places they consider as safe. In fact, safety has replaced sun and sand as the most important attribute while deciding on a foreign travel locale. Marketing research institute GFK conducted a study to gauge Germans’ perceptions on safety. It was found out that Germans felt most safe in their own country with Austria and Switzerland being at par. Italy and Scandinavia were up next. Importantly, Spain finds itself out of the list with less than half the respondents claiming favourable views. This was influenced by the terrorist attack in Barcelona, anti-tourist sentiments in Mallorca and the separatist movement n Catalonia. Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey have been totally eliminated from the list with a mere five percent approval rate.

Source:https://www.tourism-review.com/5-countries-germans-perceive-safe-to-travel-news10423

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018