【Summit Senior Figures Interview】：Interview with Ralf Ostendorf, Director Market Management of visitBerlin: The Fragrant Hills Summit Is a Very Good Opportunity to Promote a City

Berlin is a vice-chairman city of WTCF. During the Summit, Ralf Ostendorf, Director Market Management of visitBerlin, was interviewed by the media from China and abroad. He answered questions about shared economy’s influence on Berlin, future tourism development of Berlin and so on.

“Shared Economy today always comes, especially for Berlin, it’s always something that benefits the locals and that’s why it has always been created but defiantly has an effect on tourism.” Mr. Ostendorf said, “Shared Economy has created a lot of change in the industry and for the tourists, it has a lot of benefits because you can find excellent accommodation all over the world and get a unique local experience from the destination where you are. On the other hand, of course it’s a threat to the traditional hotel industry and especially in Berlin I can say they don’t like Airbnb and we not only have Airbnb in the lane we also have many private owners who give their apartments to the tourism industry by renting them to tourists and it’s not very popular sometimes because that takes away those apartments from the normal markets so normal Berliner will not be able to find an apartment in a certain area maybe because there are too many apartments, but that is only a side effect.”

Mr. Ostendorf believes that some may reject shared economy, but that does no good to the healthy development of the tourism industry. It’s a “free world” and also for the hotel industry, they just have to find new ways to be more competitive. They should improve service and products and that is something an apartment can’t provide. On the other hand, Apps like Airbnb have the right to develop and meet the demands of different groups. Under a solid regulatory system, they can bring diversification and abundance to the tourism experience. “Because every day you have new people, maybe in the apartments and some streets we already know there are too many apartments. That of course then has a negative effect on the locals so they see it sometimes really critical.”

When talking about the tourism resources of Berlin, Mr. Ostendorf said that Berlin is better than the rest of Germany, it’s totally contrast to any other German city. “I’ve been living in Berlin for 18 years and I’d have to say the city changes every day and every day is different. Berlin is a melting pot for really creativity professional designers, arts, musicians, and so on and so on startup companies. And that is what Berlin makes, is Berlin today, Berlin is a big magnet in Europe, it’s a shining star all European cities right now cause its always reinventing itself every day. Berlin is the city of freedom which is really, really very important.”

“Beijing is our sister city, it’s the capital, but then of course Shanghai, Guangzhou, these are the main three cities but of course also we will be going more into the smaller cities and second tier cities.” Mr. Ostendorf said he had attended the Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit several times. The Summit is getting bigger and more professional, year by year. “It’s always nice to meet people, it’s always nice to meet new people and that is because WTCF is still a very young organization and that means the number of members are still growing. Each year you have different representatives of various cities and always good to exchange information aside from the official topics that we have at the summit. It’s to learn what is happening in your country what is happening in your destination, what are your problems what are your challenges.”

“WTCF is getting good international network, of course, with the focus on China. It’s also very important for us to get local networks in China and WTCF helps us with that. Maybe one day we will bid for the summit, not now. Because for us it will be very important that our new airport is open and that we can show Berlin in a way that we want to show Berlin. Defiantly one day, within the next five years, maybe, we will hope to have the WTCF summit also in Berlin. ”