The number of overnight stays by travelers from abroad rose particularly sharply (plus 6 percent). In comparison, the number of overnight stays by residents increased by only half as much, namely by 3 percent. At 330.3 million, they still booked more than five times as many overnight stays as guests from other countries with 63.8 million.
With the growth, germany established itself in 2011 as the second most popular travel destination for europeans after spain (+10 percent) for all trips, reported petra hedorfer, head of the german central office for tourism (DZT). This has enabled the gap to france to be further widened. In addition, double-digit growth rates from china, india and brazil are responsible for the dynamic from abroad, hedorfer said in frankfurt.
In addition to the netherlands as the largest group of guests, the swiss in particular had discovered neighboring germany as a favorably priced travel destination with a high quality of service and service orientation. At around 4.4 million, the number of overnight stays from switzerland was twice as high as ten years ago. The confederates preferred the luxury segment and bought all kinds of goods because of the favorable exchange rate to the euro, hedorfer reported.
In contrast, visitors from the highly indebted countries of southern europe were weak: spain was still up, while greeks, italians and portuguese traveled to germany less frequently. Of the more than 10 million overnight stays by dutch visitors, around 1.5 million were at campsites.
The 400-million-overnight-stay mark will be broken this year, according to ernst burgbacher (FDP), secretary of state for economic affairs. According to studies, tourism is one of the most important economic sectors in germany. Foreign travelers spent around 36.6 billion euros a year in germany.
For this year, the tourism center is focusing on major events such as the documenta world art exhibition in kassel, the preuben celebrations and the 800th anniversary of the thomanerchor in leipzig. A further increase in overnight stays of up to 3 percent is expected. Targeted markets in emerging countries such as brazil, india and russia have been targeted, hedorfer reported. A new GNTB office in belgrade is also scheduled to open on 31 december. Marz to take care of the balkan market.
According to the federal office, the number of overnight stays has been rising steadily since 2004, with the exception of 2009, which was hit by the economic crisis. Statistics include hotels with at least nine beds and campsites.