From
Lea Hampel, Berlin
Even the toilets have to serve the green agenda. “Thirsty?” “Water from the tap is of excellent quality”. That’s what it says – in the congress language English – on the doors of the quiet little rooms of the ITB, the world’s largest tourism trade fair, which is taking place this week in Berlin. The exhibition center is adorned with monstera plants and bamboo pots, and at the entrance a Turkish hotel chain announces with a poster that it is “always in harmony with Mother Nature”. This is flanked by a program with a series of environmental lectures, “Sustainability through digital guest guidance”, “Sustainable Western Balkans” and “Keeping climate and biodiversity promises”. Anyone who didn’t know any better might think they had come to an environmental event and not one where the aim is to send as many people as possible out into the world as often as possible. The message from the industry: Now that things are starting again, everyone has only one goal: to make travel as green as possible.