August 2003 - Nr. 8
German National Tourist Office Celebrates
50 YEARS IN CANADA
Toronto – It was in the days of Prime Minister Louis Saint-Laurent and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, in January 1953, that the German National Tourist Office opened its first representation in Canada, on Sherbrooke Street West, in Montreal. Nine prime ministers, six chancellors and five GNTO-directors for Canada later, the tourism marketing office, located in Toronto since 1989, this year celebrates 50 years in Canada.
Established in 1948 in Frankfurt, the German National Tourist Board was formed by representatives of Germany’s tourism and transport organizations with a mandate to promote tourism to Germany. Then as now, tourism was both an industry that contributed to the country’s economy and a means to further cultural understanding and friendship among peoples.
The GNTO was the second European national tourist office to open in Canada, after France, its mandate, to support the local travel industry in helping Canadians travel to Germany and to keep Germany at the top of the public mind as a travel destination. In 1952, some 9,500 Canadians visited Germany and spent approximately 21,500 nights there. In 2000, the most recent year for which Statistics Canada has comparable figures, a record 323,000 Canadians traveled to Germany and spent 2.3-million overnights.
The most dramatic rise took place, not surprisingly, in the affluent 1980s, when annual Canadian visitor numbers tripled and overnights quadrupled. The all-time record year, however, was 1990, the year of German reunification and also the every-ten-years performance of the Oberammergau Passion Play, when more than 300,000 Canadians spent 3.35-million overnights in Germany.
Canadians of all backgrounds travel to Germany, and proportionally more so than their American neighbours. Despite currency exchange rates and economic and political challenges, domestic as well as global, Canadians’ interest in Germany remains strong. After five decades of the GNTO in Canada, Germany continues to rank a solid Number Three among Canadians’ European travel destinations. Recent staff increases and the move of the marketing office to a downtown Toronto location stand to maintain this position. As in the past, the GNTO will look for new opportunities in the years to come to present Destination Germany to travel-savvy Canadians.
"Germany will continue to attract new and repeat visitors from Canada with a variety of special promotions," says Ursula Schörcher, Chair of the German National Tourist Board, present in Toronto to celebrate the office’s 50th anniversary in Canada. "In 1949, the first tourism marketing campaign was inspired by the 200th birthday of Germany’s foremost poet and author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Next year, 55 years later, we will celebrate the country’s contributions to the world of music with many special concerts and events."
For general information on Germany, please contact the German National Tourist Office’s toll-free number 1-877-315-6237, send an e-mail to
gntony@aol.com or visit GNTO’s Web sites: www.germany-tourism.de and www.visits-to-germany.com.
