Visit BMW's 'headquarters'

"Why should I travel to Munich?" - "We have BMW!" - the answer of Mr. Benedikt Brandmeier (Director of the Munich Tourist Office - Germany) sounds a bit absurd, but is extremely convincing.

Everyone knows that BMW is the world's leading car brand, a symbol of the German auto industry, but after hundreds of years of dominating the world, BMW's headquarters right in its hometown of Munich is becoming a powerful "weapon" of the Bavarian tourism industry.

I am not a car enthusiast, nor am I too passionate or knowledgeable about cars, but in the program to explore Munich (Germany), the destination I most look forward to is the "headquarters" of BMW. I want to "witness" the newest, hottest car models and "enjoy the intense driving feeling" as the famous slogan of this world's leading car company says.

BMW headquarters seen from Olympic Park

From an icon of the auto industry to the 'golden egg' of Bavarian tourism

We arrived in Munich just one day after the exciting matches of Euro 2024 had just ended. According to the schedule, we would visit the Olympic Park - the area where more than 50,000 fans had "burned" their hearts out with the matches over the past month, then go to the BMW Group headquarters less than 1 km away.

The lush green lawns, the clear lake with occasional ripples following the movements of the wild ducks and swans... are the first impressions of this most famous park in Germany. We had 1 hour to visit the Olympic stadium with a capacity of 69,000 seats with an eye-catching retractable roof; to climb up the 52m high hill built from the ruins of the city after being bombed in World War II; then climb the 291m high Olympic tower - where there is a small museum about Rock n' Roll, which is also a point to look out over the bustling city of Munich.

Impressive design of BMW Welt

From above, the BMW Headquarters building, which resembles four cylinders of a car engine, stands out and attracts the attention of all visitors. On top of the four silver-painted cylinders is the BMW logo mounted on all four sides. Therefore, no matter where you stand, visitors can recognize the iconic building of the city.

The Olympic Park is in the process of cleaning up after the Euro "fire pan", everywhere is littered with iron frames and steel trusses, so our group decided to move the schedule, moving early to the BMW headquarters. Crossing the small road next to the highway, the impressive BMW Headquarter building appears. Right next to the 4-cylinder tower is the BMW Museum, connecting to the left is a bridge leading to the BMW Welt (showroom) with an area of ​​up to 3,000 ^m2 .

BMW Welt is designed with a cone-shaped pillar, seen from the entrance with a structure of tilting glass and steel fibers and light alloy. During the day, the light is transformed on the surface of the "cone" to look like a light cloud. People here say that when night falls, together with the light inside, BMW Welt has a beauty that shines like a diamond.

BMW Welt is the largest BMW dealer in the world.

Mr. Benedikt Brandmeier (Director of the Munich Tourist Office - Germany) said: For both BMW and the people of Munich, the BMW complex is the greatest pride. A visit to the BMW museum, as well as the company's related buildings and factories, is an indispensable part of every tourist's trip to this city. Before visiting the museum, visitors often visit the BMW Welt showroom, which displays all of BMW's current car models, as well as the first Rolls-Royce or MINI sub-brands.

This is the world's first and largest BMW dealership, and also a car delivery center, where customers will receive their keys directly in a special car handover ceremony. BMW Welt is truly a "golden goose" for Munich from the production and sale of BMWs, and also brings huge tourism benefits, attracting about 2 million visitors each year.

This showroom displays all current and past BMW models, as well as the Rolls-Royce and MINI sub-brands.

"To fully experience the complex from BMW headquarters to showroom and museum, visitors will have to spend about 5-6 hours or longer if they choose to dine right in BMW Welt. We have a full range of restaurants with typical German dishes here. BMW is currently one of the tourism products that keeps visitors in Munich the longest" - Mr. Benedikt Brandmeier added. This is truly a "diamond" for the economy of the central city in southern Germany.

On the less than 1 km journey from Olympic Park to BMW Headquarters, hundreds of BMWs passed us one after another. There are probably more BMWs in Munich than anywhere else in the world.

Tourists are fascinated by the car models at the BMW Welt showroom.

Softness hidden in rough coat

Two years ago, when reading a book about the world's leading car brands, I was impressed by BMW's slogan "enjoy the intense driving feeling". "Enjoy the intense driving feeling" has established a clear identity symbol for BMW, distinguishing BMW from other luxury car brands. However, BMW was not immediately remembered for "enjoy the intense driving feeling" since its launch.

Visitors to BMW Welt will experience test driving some car models.

In the 1970s, BMW was just a small car factory in Bavaria, dreaming of entering the American market but faced a big barrier: American consumers did not recognize BMW and it did not meet the American concept of a luxury car. American-recognized luxury car brands such as Lincoln and Cadillac all had fashionable looks, spacious spaces, luxurious and comfortable interiors. BMW was inferior in size and interior, and the brand did not have high recognition.

Of course, BMW has its own advantages, such as superior engine, chassis, performance and driving pleasure. But how to make Americans recognize these features and believe that this is the new standard for luxury cars? So BMW used four English words to introduce itself to American consumers - "The ultimate driving machine".

AI technology is applied to suggest "tailor-made" car models for each customer to experience.

"The Ultimate Driving Machine" - the exact definition of the BMW brand and perfectly conveys the brand philosophy and BMW's pursuit of speed, control and driving feel. It allows American consumers to instantly recognize and remember BMW, thus allowing BMW to enter the North American market, and sales also began to skyrocket.

However, the "ultimate driving machine", as well as the "German tank" both give off a feeling of being a bit rigid, dry, principled, direct... like the German personality traits that we often mention.

Not only for the BMW car brand, the BMW museum is also the pride of the people of Munich.

So when it had a solid foothold in the luxury car market in the US, BMW changed to a new slogan: "Sheer driving pleasure", taking the user's feelings and experiences as the starting point to describe the brand's value.

When it encountered difficulties in the Chinese market, BMW once again optimized "enjoy the intense driving feeling" to enrich the brand meaning. In the second half of 2009, BMW launched a new slogan - "JOY IS BMW" in the German market, which quickly became BMW's new global brand strategy.

Not only recreating the more than 100-year history of BMW's formation and development, the museum is also an ideal check-in spot for tourists who love taking photos.

From "the ultimate driving machine" to "BMW joy", the iconic brand of the German auto industry has shed its rough exterior to gradually conquer car enthusiasts, becoming one of the world's luxury car icons.

All of this journey is clearly recreated at the BMW Museum. Not only displaying hundreds of classic cars, civilian cars, each mechanical part of racing cars, motorbikes, airplanes... so that visitors can clearly understand the history of more than 100 years of formation and development of the ultimate driving machines, the Museum also serves very well for tourism with extremely unique check-in points, extremely interesting experiences, so that visitors have the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of intense driving and finally enjoy the full joy of BMW.

Unique check-in space only available at BMW Museum

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The concept car display area is also a special feature of the museum, as it gathers the most unique and even "craziest" cars ever created by BMW. With a huge number of cars that could write an encyclopedia about BMW, the BMW museum is one of the must-see destinations for any car lover when coming to Bavaria.

From October, Vietnam Airlines will operate flights between Hanoi and Munich with a frequency of 2 flights per week, departing from Hanoi on Fridays and Sundays; from Munich on Mondays and Saturdays. The flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Munich will operate 1 flight per week on Mondays, and the other way on Tuesdays. From December, Vietnam Airlines will add 1 flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Munich, departing from Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesdays and from Munich on Thursdays every week.

Thus, by the end of 2024 and in 2025, Vietnam Airlines will operate a total of 4 routes departing from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City to 2 major cities of Germany, Frankfurt and Munich. 100% of flights will be operated by modern wide-body aircraft, comfortable for long trips and environmentally friendly.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/toi-tham-dai-ban-doanh-cua-bmw-185240723140108465.htm