BERLIN/MADRID, March 7 (Reuters) – European countries will
need to focus less on beach holidays and more on communist
history, rolling landscapes and even poetic trees if they want
to take advantage of growing numbers of tourists from China.

According to the China Tourism Academy, some 200 million
Chinese could be travelling abroad annually by 2020, up from 82
million in 2012.

BERLIN, March 7 (Reuters) – More hotels are expected to
change hands this year, with transaction volumes returning to
pre-crisis levels thanks to easier financing and wealthy Gulf
buyers on the hunt for trophy assets in key locations in London
or Paris.

Total European hotel transaction volume reached 5.6 billion
euros ($7.3 billion) in 2012, a drop of 21 percent from 2011,
and well below the 10-year average since 2002 of 9.5 billion,
according to a report by HVS Hodges Ward Elliott.

BERLIN, March 5 (Reuters) – Marriott International
moved into the economy hotel market, teaming up with IKEA’s
real estate arm to launch a new European chain for
travellers seeking style on a budget.

Cool and contemporary budget hotels such as Motel One, B&B
Hotels and CitizenM are springing up all over Europe to meet
demand from people who are keen to get away from it all despite
squeezed leisure budgets.

MANNHEIM, Germany, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Optimism that the
worst of the euro zone debt crisis is over has helped German
investor sentiment soar to its highest level in nearly three
years this month.

In the latest sign that Europe’s largest economy is bouncing
back after a dismal end to 2012, the Mannheim-based ZEW think
tank said on Tuesday its monthly investor and analyst poll of
economic sentiment rose to 48.2 points in February from 31.5 in
January.

FRANKFURT, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Sportswear firm Puma said it is pulling out of the sailing market to concentrate on other sports such as soccer and running to rebuild its flagging business, leaving an Americas Cup team seeking a new sponsor.

The German company, which on Thursday reported a 70 percent drop in its annual profit, is going through its biggest reorganisation in 20 years to restore the business and get its products back in fashion in the United States, Europe and China.

GAMMESFELD, Germany (Reuters) – Peter Breiter, 41, is an unusual banker. Not for him the big bonuses, complicated financial instruments and multi-million deals.

He is happy instead writing transaction slips out by hand for the 500 inhabitants of the tiny southern German village of Gammesfeld.

FRANKFURT, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Germany’s Lufthansa
and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines have halted flights to
Tripoli due to insecurity in Libya, a spokeswoman said on
Tuesday.

Lufthansa, which flew three times a week to Tripoli, resumed
flights to the Libyan capital in Feb. 2012 after rebels ousted
former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Austrian, bought
by Lufthansa in 2009, flew to Tripoli twice a week.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is making a big push to win back German tourists, who are still avoiding the country because of concerns over radiation.

Visitor numbers from Germany, the world’s biggest spenders on foreign holidays in 2011, fell 35 percent between 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 did not recover as much as other markets, Tokyo tourism officials said in Frankfurt this week.

By Victoria Bryan

(Reuters.com) – Two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is making a big push to win back German tourists, who are still avoiding the country because of concerns over radiation.

Visitor numbers from Germany, the world’s biggest spenders on foreign holidays in 2011, fell 35 percent between 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 did not recover as much as other markets, officials said in Frankfurt on Thursday.

FRANKFURT, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Sales of Nivea creams and
lotions in emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia helped
German group Beiersdorf counter a weak climate in
Europe and post a 4.7 percent rise in full-year sales.

Emerging markets are a key battleground for European makers
of personal care and household goods seeking to make up for
stuttering growth at home.