The Hotel du Cap Eden Roc in 1961. Herb Gouldon / Flickr

The company behind the famous Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the south of France is on the hunt for a London property to add to its portfolio.

The Oetker Collection, part of German family conglomerate the Oetker Group, wants to find a base in the capital as part of expansion plans which include New York and Istanbul.

Frank Marrenbach, chief executive of the seven-strong luxury hotel company, said that the UK provides 10pc of its customers and is number one on his shopping list. “London is so important for tourism,” said Mr Marrenbach, who added that he was looking at existing hotels as well as new-build sites in locations including Knightsbridge and Belgravia.

The Hotel du Cap, in Cap d’Antibes on the French Riviera, has played home during the Cannes Film Festival to a number of stars of The Great Gatsby, including Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Poppies make an appearance near Rians, Provence, France. Ross Werland / Chicago Tribune

Soon after we emerge from Le Tunnel, we start the time-honoured litany of English folk on to the Continent. “The French are so much more stylish.” “Thinner too.” “Cultured.”

We eat croissants and pains au chocolat and resolve to kick out the schoolboy Franglais once and for all. “I am, finally, going to learn French properly, starting now.”

It is the right time for such declarations. I’m with my son Conor, who has recently finished college and needs to think what to do next. He’s also here to carry my bag as I’ve broken my kneecap.

“At least if you end up in a French hospital, they’re much better than ours.”

But our real panegyrics are reserved for the train: the first-ever direct London to Aix-en-Provence service, which Eurostar is trialling until 29 June (there will be another train to Avignon for the rest of the summer). It is certainly convenient, and fast: after hopping on at London St Pancras, we bypass Paris and before lunch reach Lyon, the first stop. I reckon George Stephenson is up there on his steam cloud laughing into his stovepipe hat, because the age of the train is definitely not over. In fact it might just be beginning, with global carbon dioxide levels hitting record highs and the success of trains like these crucial. Let’s hope they extend the service, and repeat it next year.

Everything goes to plan until somewhere before Avignon, when Conor rouses me from a doze with an alarming message: “Dad, it’s cloudy.”

English weather in France

I look out of the window and let out a gasp of horror. Floodwater is coursing through the countryside while dark clouds pregnant with rain are threatening to unleash themselves on the poor pantiles and cypress trees. We complain to one of the train staff who makes one of those gloriously expressive French gestures that communicate stoical sympathy and fatalistic despair. A few minutes later he returns with a drinks trolley and gives us both a hefty tot of pastis. What can anyone say? Global warming has interfered with the jetstream and brought Provence the worst possible indignity: English weather. It is the wettest spring in years and we have come to go walking.

After just over six hours we arrive in Aix TGV station and pull on our walking boots. The plan is to tackle part of a new long-distance footpath, the GR2013, opened to mark Marseille’s year as European Capital of Culture. This is no ordinary path: it has been devised by artists to reveal aspects of Provence that are rarely seen and less frequently appreciated. The idea is to show the unexpected, and perhaps this is why we find ourselves clambering over a crash barrier and wandering past a quiet lay-by where some scantily dressed women appear to be waiting in parked cars.

“Do you know them, Dad?” asks Conor, grinning. “They’re waving.”

I’m busy photographing a patch of wild iris so leave him to wave back.

The little GR2013 waymarkers lead us past an old second world war base where asphodels now bloom, and into some lovely rolling countryside. Ahead of us is our ultimate objective, Mont Sainte-Victoire, the mountain that hovers over Aix like a sphinx. If the GR2013 hopes to meld art and landscape, then Mont Sainte-Victoire is its presiding genius, having for many years been the muse for this area’s most famous artistic son, Paul Cézanne. He painted the peak’s crisp geological geometries 87 times, a creative response that would electrify the young Pablo Picasso.

Cezanne’s studio

For our brief overnight stop in Aix, I’m determined to visit Cézanne’s studio (atelier-cezanne.com), purpose-built so the artist could easily view his mountain. His tiny house has miraculously survived much as he left it: his hat is on the peg, his backpack waits by the chair, and on the wooden desk stands his last wine beaker, dry and purple-stained. It is as though the man has simply flown from the window and is out there with the nightingales. All around are objects recognisable from his paintings: the olive jar, the wooden rosary, the empty bottles and the armless cherub figurine, mundane objects that he transformed into thrilling and potent images.

During Cézanne’s life, few people, a handful only, came to this place. He had abandoned the art world of Paris and been depicted as a failure by his former friend Emile Zola in the 1886 novel L’Oeuvre.

Our guide to the artist’s studio, Gabriel, makes a face: “After that, the two men never spoke again.”

Gabriel shows us the extra-tall door in a corner of the room, which allowed Cézanne to take big canvases outside to paint in natural light: “He lived on an allowance from his father then, when the father died, Cézanne inherited everything.”

Cézanne’s stubborn refusal to give up on painting must have been particularly annoying to his parent, a self-made man and bastion of the local bourgeoisie. No one liked the young Cézanne’s works, except the occasional maverick American. At one point some citizens of Aix actually asked their unwanted artist to leave. Sales of his paintings were so rare that the lower room of this one-up-one-down house became choked with canvases.

In the upstairs studio, I find a chest of drawers under the north window that contains souvenirs, photographs and mementoes, among them a letter written to Claude Monet and the clay pipe that features in The Card Players.

Last year, over a century after Cézanne died, it was reported that one of the five versions of this painting sold at auction for over $250m. It’s a shame, I reflect, looking down at that cheap clay pipe, that his father didn’t live to see the moment when his son’s painting became the most expensive the world has ever seen. Mind you, if he had, he would also have witnessed his grandson selling off those treasures for a few francs in the days after Paul died.

Aix’s old town

Leaving the studio we set off up the hill to find the viewpoint where Cézanne painted many of those Mont Sainte-Victoire pictures. Like the studio, it is still much as he found it: a fabulous panorama of pantiled rooftops and cypress trees stretching out across rolling hills to the spectacular peak topped by an enormous cross. One local who spied on the old white-bearded painter reported that his technique could be highly unorthodox. He once got so angry with his failure to render the sublime colours and forms that he grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it through the canvas.

That peak will be our goal tomorrow, but first I want to find Cézanne’s favourite cafe, Les Deux Garçons. We stroll in the twilight through Aix’s fine old town, admiring the tall stone buildings and the narrow streets that open into lovely squares. We stop to eat in one of these, then carry on to Cours Mirabeau, a broad, tree-lined boulevard with, at number 53, Les Deux Garçons. The cafe is unchanged since Cézanne drank his favourite vermouth there. His favourite seat is there, at the rear of the main room on the right, under the ornate gilded mirrors. We drink to Cézanne and his endless determination.

In the morning we take a taxi to a supermarket, stock up on food then get dropped off at the village of St Antonin-sur-Bayon at the base of the mountain.

Almost as soon as we get going we fall into step with a retired army officer, Jean-Jacques, who tells us he has breakfasted on the tiny blue flowers of the aphyllanthes, and proves it by picking some for us. They are very sweet but not very filling.

“This was a Roman road,” he tells us as we carry on along the GR2013. “In those days you could come up all the way from Rome on the Via Aurelia then join the Via Domitia at Narbonne and head into Spain. Provence was very important to the Romans – that’s why they called it Provincia.”

He himself is trekking from his front door to the Atlantic: “It should take about 45 days.”

At a plug of rock underneath the vast cliffs of Mont Sainte-Victoire we come to a cobbled area and a simple hut known as Cézanne’s Refuge, a spot the artist had used to paint the peak. Here we leave Jean-Jacques and head up the hill, winding through patches of wild irises. At every rise in the path, the botany changes: tiny narcissi giving way to delicate wild tulips and then to spotted orchids. We are grateful for the cloud: this could be a hot and shade-free walk in summer (the authorities frequently shut the path for weeks, even months, to prevent summer fires – so check before setting out).

It is late afternoon by the time we reach the old priory, its honey-coloured stones scratched with over three centuries of graffitti. Built in the 17th century, it was ruined during the Revolution, then rebuilt by volunteers in the 1950s. Tucked into a niche in the jagged limestone ridge with views to the Mediterranean and the Alps, it is a stunning location to spend a night. We search around the back and find the refuge, a large room with two big sleeping benches and a fireplace.

As the light of day fades and rain begins to fall, the other parties of walkers set off down again. One of them, a veteran of nights in the refuge, warns us: “It will be cold tonight – you should go down on the north side, there’s plenty of firewood there.”

Taking our torches we set off. We’d been told to watch out for wild boar but we see no sign. This section of the mountain was bought soon after Cézanne’s death by Picasso, who moved into Château de Vauvenargues below. It had been Cézanne’s unique vision that had impressed the Spaniard, inspiring him to push on into the uncharted territory of cubism.

Now, as the dying sun swings low through banks of cloud, we are treated to the mountain’s own ever-changing gallery of light and form: the valleys and forests below fading to soft dark trapeziums and the ridges beyond stretching out in bony layers of mauve and orange. I see then why Cézanne had struggled to represent what he saw, painting the same scenes over and over again, trying to capture something beyond the visually transient.

Wild boar sausage and red wine

Back at the refuge, we stack up a roaring log fire and bake potatoes, which we eat with wild boar sausage and rough red wine. It is going to be a night of pure tranquillity and mountain views. Conor and I can have a father-son discussion about his future. I can mention Cézanne’s life and his heroic determination to follow his passion and talent (though I might play down the way he wilfully ignored paternal advice). It is then that we hear the commotion.

Out in the yard are five heavily laden donkeys tended by a large group of men and women, all dripping wet and cold. A film crew has arrived together with a cast of actors and a support team, part of a project to make a film for next year’s Avignon Festival. Our quiet evening has disappeared, replaced by a long wild night of sprawling conversations – conducted in Franglais, of course – and singing. The father-son stuff will have to wait, but perhaps Cézanne had already made the most vital point for me.

At dawn I am woken by sunlight creeping under the shutters. Can it be true? I tiptoe past slumbering people and piles of wet clothes. Outside I stumble to the edge of the parapet and look out on a magnificent panorama of clouds lying below the peak. We are marooned in a sea of white and above us, at last, is that Provençal sunshine.

• The trip was provided by Visit Provence (visitprovence.com). Réfuge Baudino and Réfuge du Prieuré on Mont Ste-Victoire are free, first come, first served. Walking tours including refuge stays can be organised by Evana. Travel was provided by Eurostar on the inaugural weekly service from London St Pancras to Aix-en-Provence, from £109.50 one-way (until 29 June, then service goes to Avignon for the rest of the summer; next year tba), and by East Coast which has returns York-London from £26. Accommodation in London was provided by the Renaissance Hotel, St Pancras (020-7841 3540, marriott.co.uk, doubles from £247). Further information: aixenprovencetourism.com

MORE PROVENCE ESCAPES

Lavender festival

Fields of Provençal lavender are a beautiful sight during the summer months. Villages host lavender festivals and producers open their doors to visitors, including La Ferme de Gerbaud, a herb farm just outside Lourmarin. A 90-minute guided tour is €5 (free for children), or the Thursday-night tasting meals – which include delicacies such as lavender biscuits – are £26, including wine and a tour of the farm.

Cycling

Cycling is a great way to explore the quiet roads of Provence. The Vaucluse region has cycle paths, themed routes and accommodation that welcomes cyclists. Visit provence-cycling.co.uk for information, advice and tempting itineraries, such as a ride around the Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards.

Island life

Off the coast of the French Riviera, at Provence’s southernmost point, are several Mediterranean islands known as the Iles d’Or – Porquerolles and Port-Cros, (which are both national parks) and Levant (which is more touristy, and largely nudist). The islands are covered in pines, fruit trees and vineyards, and with very pretty paths, little villages and beaches. There are lots of expensive places to stay but Hotel Les Medes on Porquerolles has rooms and apartments from €96 per night.

Music festival

The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (4‑27 July) is an annual music jamboree focusing mainly on opera. From 14 June, the prelude to the main festival includes free concerts on the Cours Mirabeau, one of the town’s liveliest streets. During the festival proper, many of the performances take place in atmospheric outdoor settings, such as the grounds of a chateau or the courtyard of a former archbishop’s palace.

Hidden retreat

Cotignac, east of Aix in the Upper Var region, is a charming town overlooked by tufa cliffs topped with medieval towers, hiding caves and the remains of troglodyte dwellings. With lots of holiday homes to rent, it could be a good out-of-the-way base for exploring the Provence cities and the Canyon du Verdon – one of Europe’s most stunning gorges – and the bright turquoise Ste Croix lake, both an hour away. Cotignac has an outdoor theatre in summer, and there are waterfalls nearby at Sillans-la-Cascade. Other authentic villages to visit include Tourtour, Entrecasteaux, Sillan la Cascade, Barjols, Aups and Villecroze.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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The balcony of the Cappello family is a popular tourist destination in Chile. Luciana / Flickr

Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, is hoping to cash in on the enduring appeal of Shakespeare’s “star-cross’d lovers”, by charging two euros (£1.68) per head to see the famous balcony.

Tourists who want to enter the courtyard to see the balcony from where Juliet was supposedly wooed by Romeo could soon have to pay a fee, under plans being discussed by Verona city council.

The balcony protrudes from “Juliet’s House”, a 14th century building which was once the home of the Cappello family – who were possibly the model for the Capulets of Shakespeare’s play.

The council is also mulling the idea of creating a luxury suite on the top floor of Juliet’s House where couples could spend the first night of their honeymoon – for up to 5,000 euros, according to reports.

“We are hoping to hold talks with the owners of buildings that overlook the courtyard so that we can find a suitable solution for everybody,” Enrico Corsi, councillor in charge of tourism, told Italy’s Ansa news agency. “It needs to be in the interests of the whole city, which is known throughout the world for the legend of Juliet.”

The city is pushing hard to establish itself as a romantic venue and already has a scheme called ‘Sposami a Verona‘, or Marry Me in Verona, promoted as “a once in a lifetime experience, following in the footsteps of Romeo and Juliet.” It enables Italians and foreigners to hold their weddings in various picturesque locations, including Juliet’s House.

The balcony is a big tourist draw for Verona but historians say there is little evidence linking it to Shakespeare’s tragic love story.

Although the Capulet and the Montague families did exist, there is no record of them engaging in a feud, and Romeo and Juliet are entirely fictional characters.

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Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions calls its small shops the "original boutiques" in its new ad. Screenshot / YouTube

Trave ads seek to inspire and excite viewers into booking a trip. The methods used to elicit such sentiments include fast-paced music, flashy images, and emotional voiceovers; and ultimately they aim to convince viewers that a better time is just a plane ride away.

This week Holland defends its traditional way of life as the ‘original cool,’ while Thomson revamps its brand with a free running routine. Portland takes its time to convince viewers that it never settles for boring and an Italian tour company pushes food and wine instead of its services.

FOR ALL OF OUR SKIFTADS OF THE WEEK COLLECTION, CHECK OUT OUR ARCHIVES HERE.

Holland appeals to Americans’ inner hipster with a new multi-year campaign. The ad scoffs at Brooklyn, stating that it doesn’t consider its meals as artisanal or its small shops as boutiques because that’s the way they’ve always been in Amsterdam.  The ad quickly became one of the most watched videos on YouTube this week and one of the top videos on Reddit video after its debut on Tuesday.

Holland, The Original Cool was created by New York-based Mustache with sponsorship from the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, Amsterdam Schipol Airport, KLM, and Amsterdam Marketing.

Thomson Holidays uses the freerunning trend to take viewers through one of its cruise ships at high speed. Freerunning team 3RUN stars in the campaign that’s meant to rebrand Thomson Cruises with a more contemporary, youthful image. The ship shown is the Thomson Dream, which just went underwent a multi-million pound makeover.

Travel Portland‘s new tourism campaign is too heavy on the text and too light on images that show what truly makes Portland unique. Images of Portland’s serene shoreline, biggest brands including Colombia and Nike, and famous Voodoo Doughnut shop are mixed in with generic shots of wine glasses and restaurants. At two minutes long, the video could afford to cut some length for a more direct and powerful campaign.

This new ad for Roman tour company Carrani does as much to draw tourists to Italy as it does to convince them to choose the established brand’s services. The video seamlessly connects the brand with the city’s finest food, people, and architecture. Italian videographer Gabriele Rivoli created the video.

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A Viking River Cruise on the Rhine. Rolf Heinrich / Flickr

Viking Cruises Ltd. ordered two vessels to start an ocean cruise business, a first for the company, which has focused on river voyages, Chairman Torstein Hagen said.

The 928-passenger ships are being built by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani Spa and will sail beginning in 2015 and 2016, respectively, on European itineraries, Hagen, who leads Woodland Hills, California-based Viking, said yesterday in an interview. The company may order as many as four more, he said.

Viking, founded by Hagen in 1997, operates river cruises in Europe on vessels with fewer than 200 passengers. In addition to sailing smaller ships, the company aims to give passengers more time at ports, an average of 12 hours per day, and less on the water.

“Most everyone has forgotten about the destination,” Hagen said. “We want our passengers to be able to see the Sistine Chapel at night.”

The 37-vessel company has been in expansion mode, introducing 16 ships in the past two years, with 12 more to come in 2014, Hagen said. Passenger volumes have climbed 35 percent annually over the past four years.

Viking is planning its first U.S. river cruise and may sell shares to the public, Hagen said. Its smaller vessels are built by Neptun Werft Gmbh in Rostock, Germany.

Editor: Anthony Palazzo.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net.

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Spanish bullfighter David Galan performs with a Jose Escolar's ranch fighting bull during a bullfight of the San Isidro fair at Las Ventas bullring in Madrid, Monday, Daniel Ochoa de Olza Daniel Ochoa de Olza / Associated Press

Nobel Literature laureate J.M. Coetzee has called on Spain to abandon plans to protect bullfighting, making a rare public appeal against what he called “an archaic form of entertainment.”

In an open letter to Spain’s legislature released Thursday, Coetzee called bullfights “a throwback to a time when people took no heed of the feelings of animals.” which he said had no place in 21st century Spain.

Cape Town, South Africa-born Coetzee is a noted opponent of animal cruelty, and touches upon the theme of nonhuman suffering in his books, including “The Lives of Animals.”

Spain is divided over bullfighting. The ruling Popular Party wants to enshrine it as part of Spain’s national heritage, but some regional governments have enacted bans.

Spain’s parliament has been debating the issue since February.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Science and Technology Conference held in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Marianne Weiss / Flickr

The number and frequency of meetings held by international associations, and the business travel they generate, is on the rise. The International Congress and Convention Association estimates that the number of conventions increased by more than a thousand to 11,150 meetings in 2012.

Europe is the most popular destination for international meetings with 12 out of the 20 top countries and 14 out of the top 20 cities located in the region; however, ICCA spokesman Mathijs Vleeming tells Skift that European destinations are slowing giving way to a rise in popularity of Asian destinations.

“We do see that there is a trend of the market share of European countries as meeting destinations are declining at the cost of meetings taking place in Asia Pacific, though” says Vleeming.

The greatest growth in an international meetings market took place in Copenhagen. The Danish capital hosted 137 meetings in 2012 earning it the eighth spot on the list, 39 spots higher than it ranked in 2011.

Vienna played host to the most international conferences (195) in 2012.

ICCA CEO Martin Sirk attributes the growth of the international meetings market to three factors:

1. the necessity for international associations to meet on a regular basis
2. the growth of science, healthcare, and technology sectors that such associations are commonly affiliated with
3. the increased economic strength of certain regions, especially Asia and Latin America, stimulating the growth of regionally rotating association meetings

These international groups likely live online via newsletters and chat boards making annual or semiannual conventions the only time that a large number of members come together; thus the conventions begin to serve as the lifeblood of the organization and pinnacle in the annual activity of each.

U.S. cities’ missed opportunity

The U.S. has been the top ranked country in terms of meeting numbers for more than a decade, but not a single U.S. city made it into the top 20 in this year’s list.

ICCA pegs the country’s success on the sheer size of the U.S economy as well as the proliferation of U.S. associations organizing conferences, but blames individual city marketing organizations for not identifying the lucrative sector.

“U.S. cities have an opportunity to make huge progress in the growing market of international association business, if they decide to proactively focus on this sector,” opined Vleeming in a 2011 post.

ICCA is made of 950+ suppliers responsible for the handling, transporting, and accommodating international meetings from 88 countries, making it no surprise that it advises destinations and companies involved in the international meeting sector to tap into this growing niche market.

The ICCA database does not include all association meetings taking place worldwide. All association meetings in the ICCA Association Database must rotate between at least “three countries, attract at least 50 participants, and be held with a certain frequency.”

ICCA country and city ranking measured by number of meetings organised in 2012 are below:

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Wind farms in Nether Monynut, Scotland. cowrin / Flickr.com

Man-made structures can now be seen from at least 70 per cent of Scotland, with a recent five per cent increase in the area affected by development being blamed on the spread of wind turbines.

An official report from Scottish Natural Heritage, the environment agency, found that the figure had risen from 65 per cent in 2008 to 70 per cent by 2010.

However, according to anti-wind farm campaigners, the situation may now be much worse, with one suggesting that 80 per cent of the country could soon be blighted.

The report on the “visual influence of built development”, which considers the impact of structures including roads, railways, bridges, airfields and tall buildings, singled out wind farms as the cause of the recent change.

It revealed that turbines were visible from 19.9 per cent of Scotland in 2008, with the figure jumping to 31.6 per cent the following year, and to 35.6 per cent by 2010.

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Ian Jardine, chief executive of SNH, said the results were “perhaps unsurprising given the importance of the renewable energy sector in Scotland”.

David Gibson, of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, told The Daily Telegraph that the SNH figures were historical and represented the “tip of the iceberg”.

He added: “Since then we have seen an exponential rise in the number of wind farm applications approved by the Scottish Government and there doesn’t seem to be any cap or scrutiny on the number of proposals in the pipeline.”

He said other figures suggested that only one third of the turbines proposed in Scotland had been built, with the other two thirds either approved or going through the planning process.

Mr Gibson added that new government proposals that could lead to around 20 per cent of the country being protected from development as wild land, did not include any proposal to protect the periphery of National Parks and National Scenic Areas.

Campaigners are particularly concerned about the outcome of two applications for wind farms on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park – the 31-turbine Allt Duine scheme at Kincraig, and the 67-turbine Stronelairg project in the Monadhliath mountains above Loch Ness.

Both would impinge further on the views from Scotland’s dwindling wild land resource and Mr Gibson said it would be a sign that ministers were listening if the schemes were rejected.

Lind Holt, of Scotland Against Spin, added: “I think the situation will now be much worse than this report suggests and the figure could soon be up to 80 per cent.”

She also claimed it was a shocking indictment of the Scottish Government that it had not set any cap on the number of turbines that could be built in Scotland, and could not say how many had already been erected.

Ann West, 73, vice chairman of Country Guardian, which has been fighting wind farm development in the UK since 1991, said the report showed that Scotland had a “real problem”.

She added: “We are desperate to protect the country, but Scotland seems to be leading the way in being totally careless with the landscape.

“The destruction of wild and beautiful landscape is a huge problem. The countryside relies on tourism, and wind farms are putting tourists off.”

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The sun sets behind a monument in Alcalá de Henares, a small city near the Spanish capital of Madrid, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Sitio do Neto / Flickr

Despite rising competition from tourism destinations in Asia and emerging economies, Europe welcomed more than half of all international tourist arrivals in 2012, or 535 million foreign visitors, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Europe also earned the largest regional share of international tourism receipts, which reached an estimated total of $1075 billion in 2012.

Tourism spending in Europe accounted for 43 percent, or $457 billion, of the 2012 tourism earnings. Last year’s earnings by region are outlined below:

Although Europe maintains the number one spot, Asia and the Pacific are a close number two.

Year-over-year change in tourism receipts signals this global shift away from Europe and towards Asia. Europe’s tourism receipts increased just 2 percent between 2011 and 2012, the smallest incline after the Middle East’s 2 percent drop, while Asia’s earnings grew 6 percent.

The tourism receipts of individual countries tell a similar story. Five of the ten top tourism earners are European countries with Spain, China, and Italy all in the top five. Only two Asian nations make the list and both are technically part of China.

Although European countries are still reporting strong tourism receipts, their earnings are growing at a much slower rate than those countries in the Asia and the Pacific region.

Six of the ten fastest growing tourism earners in 2012 are located in Asia and the Pacific and two others are located in Africa. Only Sweden and Finland make the list from Europe.

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Joussen, who took over from Michael Frenzel in February, will cut administrative costs and jobs at the corporate headquarter in Hanover, Germany, reduce interest costs to about one third of the current 160 million euros each year, lower the number of hotel brands and restructure its Hapag Lloyd cruise business, he said in a statement today.

TUI, which last paid a dividend in 2008, has been struggling to maintain profitability as consumers increasingly book flights and hotels on the Internet, and TUI failed to build up a strong presence in the thriving market for cruises. TUI had a net loss in three of the past seven fiscal years, and investors have labeled Frenzel’s reign as two lost decades.

“The current financial year will be a year of transition on our path towards resuming dividend payments,” Chief Financial Officer Horst Baier said in the statement.

The company will streamline operations with its largest unit, TUI Travel Plc, of which it owns 54.5 percent, and introduce a joint customer relationship management and synchronize online strategies as well as their brands of tour operators and hotels. The companies agreed on performance targets for travel activities in Germany, Russia and France, as well as its specialist & activity business.

Closer Ties

The closer integration follows a failed combination of the two companies earlier this year. The value of TUI’s stake in the U.K. company is equivalent to the German parent’s entire market capitalization.

Jobs at the company headquarter will be cut to “less than 100,” or about half the current 186, while personnel costs will also be trimmed at Hapag Lloyd.

TUI today reported a net loss of 248.4 million euros for the quarter ended March 31, as it booked charges to trim the corporate holding, wrote down the value of a hotel project in Italy and booked provisions for a longer startup phase to increase its fleet of cruise ships. The loss compares with a deficit of 185.2 million euros a year earlier. Sales rose 1.9 percent to 3.34 billion euros.

The company said it lifted its guidance for this year, and anticipated underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortization to improve, while reported earnings on that level will increase “slightly.” TUI said it eventually plans to pay out about 50 percent of its net cash flow in forms of dividends.

Editor: Benedikt Kammel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net.

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