Flight bookings are main factor for online success in the travel industry 27. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot In 2007 Germans increasingly used the internet when planning their trips. One quarter (24%) booked at least one product online. In this context, the focus is not so much on package trips but on individual parts of travels. Thus, 12% of Germans bought a flight ticket online in 2007, 11% booked a hotel room and …
Import prices up by 2.3 percent 27. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, in October 2007 the import price index was 2.3 percent higher than in October of the previous year. The increase is, however, mainly a consequence of the so-called basic effect. Compared to September 2007 the import price index increased by 0.7% in October. The export price index, on the …
European conference on innovation and clusters 23. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot On December 11th 2007 the Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum in co-operation with the ministry of economics in Baden-Wurttemberg will host an international conference dealing with the issues of innovation and clusters. The objective of the conference is to bring together regional and European decision makers from the fields of innovation and technology transfer.
Stagnating order receipt by German architects 23. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot The situation of German architects continues to be worrying. According to survey findings by the ifo-Institut the business situation of freelance architects did not change at the beginning of the 3rd quarter 2007 as compared to the 2nd one, but is nevertheless still far from being good.
TARGET2 launched for payments in Europe 21. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the German Bundesbank, on Monday a new European payment system called TARGET2 organised by European central banks in order to facilitate payments within Europe was successfully launched. The new system for the transfer of large amounts and for urgent transfers will gradually replacethe decentralized old TARGET system which has been operating since 1999.
Record year for online news portals 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot News portals were among the biggest winners in the German-speaking internet world. These were able to increase their site visits significantly as compared to previous years. This was demonstrated by a long-term study carried out by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). According to BITKOM, the most visited internet news …
Foreign trade prize awarded for the first time to handicraft company 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot The Waldkircher Orgelbau Jäger & Brommer company is the first handicraft company which is awarded the German foreign trade prize. This prize is conferred upon small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) which distinguish themselves through particularly successful international business activities. This year the prize competition was also open to handicraft and engineering services so that for …
Investment by industry hit five-year record high in 2006 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot In the year 2006 the German industry invested 49 billion Euros which is 3.4 billion or 7.4% more as compared to 2005. Back in 2005 investment had even decreased by 4.9%. Thus, according to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2006 the highest investment volume in five years was registered in the German industry.
Tchibo is Germany´s most renowned retail brand name 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot Tchibo, Aldi, Ikea and dm are Germany´s most important retail brand names. In a cross-sectoral ranking of 80 trade companies carried out by the BBDO Consulting management consultancy, Tchibo came first with a brand name index of 7.62 (on a scale from 1 to 10) followed closely by the Aldi discounter (7.54) and the Swedish …
EU master course for entrepreneurs 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot Four universities from Germany, France, Great Britain and Hungary have initiated a European project which makes employees of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) familiar with the EU´s economic structure and which confers upon them a Master´s diploma on the successful completion of the course.