GERMAN tourism is booming! The destination has announced a record-breaking 60,3m overnight stays by international visitors last year and expects the upward trend to continue in 2011 and beyond as the world economy recovers, predicting a 20m increase to 80m international overnight stays by 2020.
Speaking at the 37th annual German Travel Mart (GTM) in Cologne on May 8, German National Tourist Board ceo, Petra Hedorfer, said BRICS countries, led by China and India, had the greatest potential for new growth. In 2010, overnight stays from Brazil increased by 42%, China by 33%, India by 26% and Russia by 24%. Overnight stays from South Africa increased by 20,9% in 2010 to 149 026, but South Africa ranks only 39th among Germany’s source markets and has a mere 0,2% share of the German market.
In general, international arrivals to Germany increased by 11% to 26,9m in 2010, way above a 3,4% tourism growth in Europe in general and a 6,7% growth worldwide. For 2011, Germany expects its inbound tourism to grow by between two and four percent and, coupled with a two percent growth in domestic tourism, this will total 390m overnight stays in 2011. Germany recorded a 40% increase in tourism over the past decade, a trend that began before and continued after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
More than 76% of visitors or 40m trips last year came from other European countries. European visitors last year ranked Germany second after Spain, which means for the first time it proved more poplar than France, which was ranked in third place. By 2020, Germany expects an additional 14m overnight stays by European visitors with (in descending order) The Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, Italy Austria, France, Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Sweden the top 10 source markets. By 2020, overnight stays from Asia are expected to increase by four million and those from North America by two million. Demand from the Gulf rose by 26% last year.
According to Petra, Germany ranks second amongst the world’s top 50 countries in terms of image. It moved up from 19th to 9th place for its tourism image after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It also improved and attained high scores in overall visitor satisfaction, range and quality of services, accommodation, food and drink, opening times and value for money.
