12 Luxembourg Exhibitors Present at Berlin International Tourism Fair

Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, visited Berlin from Tuesday 4 to Wednesday 5 March 2025, where he attended the International Tourism Fair (ITB) and made several visits in his capacity as Minister of Energy.

According to Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy, the ITB is considered to be the most important global event for the travel and tourism industry. Since its creation in 1966, the fair has established itself as the prominent meeting place for industry experts to discover new trends and discuss innovations that will shape the future of travel. Luxembourg is traditionally present with a stand organised by Luxembourg for Tourism under the banner "Visit Luxembourg", promoting the tourist attractions of the Grand Duchy, while offering Luxembourg tourism stakeholders opportunities to establish professional contacts on site.

For the 2025 edition, twelve exhibitors from Luxembourg were present alongside Luxembourg for Tourism: Voyages Emile Weber, Luxembourg City Tourist Office (LCTO), DMC by Sales-Lentz, Mondorf Domaine Thermal, Sightseeing.lu, Accor, Goeres Group Luxembourg, Youthhostels Luxembourg, Château d'Urspelt, Hotel Le Royal, Luxair and the Luxembourg School of Hospitality and Tourism (EHTL).

Upon his arrival at the fair, Minister Delles visited the Austrian stand where he first met CEO of the European Travel Commission (ETC), Eduardo Santander. The ETC is a non-profit organisation representing the national tourist offices (NTOs) of Europe. Created in 1948 to promote Europe as a tourist destination, Luxembourg is one of the founding members, with the ETC having held its 108th Annual General Meeting last November in Luxembourg.

Minister Delles then met with Austrian State Secretary for Energy, Start-ups and Tourism, Elisabeth Zehetner, Director of the Austrian National Tourist Board, Astrid Steharnig-Staudinger, and Sustainable Development Expert at the Austrian National Tourist Board, Katrin Erben. Together, they discussed sustainability in tourism, including through artificial intelligence, a topic which the Ministry of the Economy explained is important to both countries and for which Austria can serve as a model.

Minister Delles then visited the Latvian national pavilion where he met with several exhibiting companies as well as State Secretary for Tourism of Montenegro, Simonida Kordic.

The minister then went to the Wallonia pavilion where he met his counterpart, Minister of Culture, Adult Education, Tourism, Monument Protection and Site Protection of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Gregor Freches. Together, they discussed the various cross-border projects in the tourism sector that Luxembourg is carrying out in cooperation with the German-speaking Community of Belgium. They discussed the TRAFO GR project, which aims to promote more robust, greener and more digital tourism in the Greater Region, in line with the national tourism strategy and the priorities of the European Union's tourism agenda. They also addressed the establishment of a cross-border functional area in the trinational Eifel-Ostbelgien-Éislek region for the promotion of tourism in the Greater Region, identified as a prosperous instrument for the sustainable development of the regions and the reputation of the Greater Region at European level.

At the end of the first day, Minister Delles was able to meet with Luxembourg exhibitors during an official networking reception organised on the stand, with the support of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Germany.

On the second day of the visit Minister Delles, in his capacity as Luxembourg’s Minister of Energy, took the opportunity to visit the cooling plant and high-temperature heat pump operated by energy supplier Berliner Energie & Wärme GmBH (BEW) at Potsdamer Platz.

Since 1997, the cooling plant has supplied around 12,000 offices, 1,000 apartments and a series of cultural institutions located around Potsdamer Platz. The result of a total investment of €7.8 million, 40% of which was subsidised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, a high-temperature heat pump, which was commissioned in 2022, recovers heat from the cooling towers of the cooling plant and raises its temperature level in order to feed the heat into the district heating network of the city of Berlin. Luxembourg’s Economy Ministry added that this innovative project makes it possible to recover heat, while reducing CO₂ emissions and water consumption in cooling towers. It is part of an energy transition and decarbonisation approach for district heating in the city of Berlin.

At the end of the visit, Minister Delles undertook an interview with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of BEW, Christian Feuerherd. A private company, 100% owned by the State of Berlin since May 2024, BEW aims to completely phase out the use of coal by 2030 and to supply carbon-neutral heat by 2045.

Before returning to Luxembourg, the minister attended a reception at the Luxembourg Embassy in Berlin where he was able to talk with Luxembourg students present in Berlin.

SM