Tourism in Germany

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Tourism in Germany comprises two (overlapping) areas:

  • the tourism , which in Germany takes place (with residents and nonresidents)
  • the tourism generated by Germans (at home and abroad).

Germany as a holiday destination has favorable conditions: mountain landscapes ( Alps and low mountain ranges ), lake and river landscapes , the coasts and islands of the North Sea and Baltic Sea , numerous cultural monuments and a large number of cities steeped in history as well as a well-developed infrastructure . The central location in Europe is also advantageous . With over 30 million overnight guests per year, Germany is one of the most visited countries in the world. In the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 of the World Economic Forum, Germany ranks third out of 136 countries.

history

Newspaper advertisement from 1906

The ancient Romans already used Germanic medicinal springs and founded places with thermal baths such as Aquae Granni ( Aachen ) and Aquae Mattiacorum ( Wiesbaden ). From 1520, as a result of the teachings of balneology, the first German spas such as Bad Kissingen were established . The fashionable bathing and health resorts on the coasts and inland established themselves as travel destinations for the European upper class, especially in the 19th century, including health resorts such as Baden-Baden , Bad Ems , Bad Pyrmont , Wiesbaden and the seaside resorts on the Baltic coast such as Binz , Heiligendamm , Heringsdorf , Kühlungsborn , Travemünde and Sassnitz .

After the Second World War , mass tourism developed . In the GDR this was organized by the Free German Trade Union Federation. International tourism has increased significantly in Germany since reunification, especially in the new federal states. From around 1965, mass tourism developed in the German Alpine region .

Tourists in Germany

Most of the tourists in Germany are Germans (domestic tourists or domestic tourists). The Free State of Bavaria attracts the most visitors overall . The state with the most foreign guests is Bavaria; In 2017, 94.3 million overnight stays were recorded there; this is the highest value of all federal states. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is the most popular travel destination for domestic travel and also has the strongest growth in foreign guests.

This area of ​​tourism is also called incoming .

Distribution and origin of tourists

Statistics of the number of overnight stays from 2017

country Overnight stay in
millions 		ÜN from
Germany
million 		Overnight
international guests
million
Bavaria 94.36 75.24 19.12
Baden-Württemberg 52.93 41.53 11.39
North Rhine-Westphalia 51.51 40.51 10.99
Lower Saxony 43.49 39.72 3.76
Hesse 34.1 26.43 7.67
Berlin 31.15 17.16 13.98
Schleswig-Holstein 29.89 27.88 2.01
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 29.75 28.75 1
Rhineland-Palatinate 22.22 16.98 5.24
Saxony 19.51 17.45 2.05
Hamburg 13.82 10.37 3.44
Brandenburg 13.09 12.12 0.962
Thuringia 9.92 9.3 0.62
Saxony-Anhalt 8.13 7.5 0.63
Saarland 3.08 2.62 0.46
Bremen 2.44 1.95 0.49
Source: Federal Statistical Office, as of 2017

Development of the number of international guests

International guests are all people who arrive from abroad and spend at least one night in Germany. The expenses incurred by these guests are also given, calculated in US dollars.

year Number of international guests revenue
1995 14,847,000 $ 24,052 million
2000 18,983,000 $ 24,943 million
2005 21,500,000 $ 40,531 million
2010 26,875,000 $ 49,126 million
2011 28,374,000 $ 53,431 million
2012 30,411,000 $ 51,645 million
2013 31,545,000 $ 55,486 million
2014 32,999,000 $ 58,701 million
2015 34,970,000 $ 50,645 million
2016 35,555,000 $ 52,129 million
2017 37,452,000 $ 56,173 million

Infrastructure

Around 4,000 of the 12,431 municipalities in Germany are organized in tourism associations, 310 of which are recognized as spas , seaside resorts or health resorts . Guests have access to 6,135 museums , 360 theaters , 34 leisure and adventure parks , 45,000 tennis courts , 648 golf courses , 122 national / nature parks or biosphere reserves , a network of hiking trails of around 190,000 km and 40,000 km of long-distance cycle paths . The German tourist routes complete the range of travel routes.

Economical meaning

Tourism is an important industry in Germany , both in rural regions and in cities.

The consumption expenditure of tourists in 2010 amounted to 278.3 billion euros. The gross value added attributable to tourism in 2010 amounted to 241.1 billion euros; this corresponded to 9.7% of the national gross value added. In 2016, 2.92 million workers were employed in tourism. According to the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry, tourism in Germany has the same economic power as the mechanical engineering or automotive industries, generating almost 3 million jobs. There are a number of tourist associations / offices as well as tourism associations in the four-digit range for business promotion and information for tourists. Important organizations of the national tourism industry include the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry, the German Tourism Association and the German Travel Association . International marketing is carried out by the German National Tourist Board (on behalf of the Federal Government).

The ITB Berlin is the world's leading travel trade show.

Types of tourism

Tourism on the water

Beach tourism and water sports are of great importance on the coasts and islands of the North and Baltic Seas , especially in the German seaside resorts . These types of tourism are also important on the large inland lakes such as the Mecklenburg Lake District with the Müritz , Plauer and Schweriner lakes , on Lake Constance , Chiemsee , Kummerower See and Starnberger See .

Mountain and hiking tourism

The mountains play an important role for active vacationers both in winter ( winter sports ) and in summer ( mountain hikes , mountaineering , mountain biking ). The highest mountains in Germany are in the Bavarian and Allgäu Alps . The low mountain ranges, for example the Bavarian Forest , Black Forest , Harz and Rhön , are destinations for hikers. Even flatter areas such as the cliffs on Rügen or in the hilly Ice Age landscape of the Mecklenburg Lake District are popular hiking destinations.

Culture and city tourism

The city tourism recorded especially the big cities and individual tourist famous cities. There is a smooth transition to cultural tourism , which is arranged around central music and theater offers or celebrations and festivals . The most valuable old towns , such as Heidelberg , Bamberg , Lübeck , Regensburg , Rothenburg and Stralsund , and the largest German cities , especially Berlin , Hamburg and Munich , particularly attract visitors from all over the world.

Guests usually stay much shorter in cities than in rural tourist resorts, but on average they spend more money per day.

Cycle tourism

Cycle tourism is a popular form of active vacation. Germany offers excellently developed tourist cycle routes .

A distinction must be made between two types: a cycle tour with several stages, from one overnight location to the next; and bike trips always from the same quarter (also called rally ).

Shopping tourism

The shopping tourism will take place including at a regional level, for example from the villages or smaller towns into the central and regional centers or cities.

Shopping tourism also occurs in border areas because of the price difference between neighboring countries or because of different product ranges. One example of this is the city of Flensburg directly on the Danish border. Because of the relatively low taxation of goods in Germany , the Danes prefer to buy here. Danish is spoken in the shopping centers near the border in Flensburg and the surrounding area, the German border traders call their sales outlets "Scandinavian Park" or "Dansk Vinlager" to make it clear that they have specialized in Danish customers. Factory outlet centers throughout Germany also attract customers from other European countries to places like Metzingen or the Ingolstadt Village near Ingolstadt .

More types

German tourists

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
No source for the figures

In 2004, Germans made 274 million trips, 73% of which were inland. They booked 1.4 billion overnight stays and spent 120 billion euros, of which 61.4 billion euros were spent on trips abroad.

65 million trips were vacation trips (purpose: recreation; minimum duration: 4 nights). 48.1 million Germans over the age of 14 took part in at least one vacation trip, which corresponds to a travel intensity of 74.4%.

The most popular travel destination here was Germany itself with 30.8%, of which 6.7 percentage points were each for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria . Spain followed with 13.6%, Italy with 7.4%, Austria with 6.5% and Turkey with 6.4%. A total of 6.1% was accounted for by long-distance travel, i.e. travel destinations outside Europe.

A good and fair price-performance ratio is a basic requirement for more than three quarters of all Germans. Sun, a healthy climate and beautiful nature are also weighted higher than material quality features, such as varied evening entertainment, good shopping, wellness, active or cultural offers. German vacationers appreciate a cozy atmosphere, hospitality and harmony with their travel partners on their trips.

In 48% of the trips, the journey there and back was by car , in 36% by plane , in 10% by bus and in 6% by rail . The main travel destinations by car are Denmark, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. The duration of the trip was an average of 12.9 days and the cost was 812 euros per person.

This area of ​​tourism is also called outgoing .

Tourism statistics

In Germany, the accommodation providers (as in Austria and Switzerland) report the sums of arrivals and overnight stays by guests (broken down according to the guests' countries of origin) to the municipalities / cities on a monthly basis due to legal obligations. From this, the state statistical offices and the federal office compile overall results. These figures are published in the monthly tourism survey.

This data is supplemented by information on the capacities in the form of the beds offered or, in the case of campsites, the spaces offered. In the case of hotels in the hotel industry (hotels, bed and breakfast hotels, inns, guest houses), the number of guest rooms on offer is determined on July 31 of each year.

In order to reduce the burden on the accommodation industry, only companies that can accommodate more than eight guests at the same time are surveyed.

Statistics on tourist demand provide information on the travel behavior of Germans . In quarterly telephone interviews, questions are asked about vacation and recreational trips of five or more days as well as short trips (two to four days) and business trips . For up to 10,000 travelers per year, the travel destination, number of overnight stays and travel expenses are recorded.

Trends

Internet

The Internet plays a major role in the booking behavior of guests . Many guests check websites for comments from their peers about the vacation spot and eligible hotels before booking. The bookings are often made much more quickly than before. While printed travel guides are still widely used as reference works (e.g. Baedeker , Marco Polo , Michelin and Varta ), web portals such as the free travel guide Wikivoyage and Virtualtourist or exchange and rating platforms such as trivago , Opodo , Expedia , TripAdvisor and Holidaycheck are becoming increasingly popular . Booking portals such as HRS , Hotel-ami , KAYAK , Unister , Travel24.com and hotel.de are now used more frequently for hotel bookings than traditional travel agencies, which, however, are still important for overall packages and personalized offers. Holiday activities and sights are also often ordered over the Internet, e.g. B. Via GetYourGuide .

Interest in destinations over time can also be shown graphically using search terms on Google. Here it becomes clear that the search for suitable holiday regions increases from April and reaches its peak in summer.

See also

Web links

Commons : Tourism in Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UNWTO Tourism Highlights, Edition 2013 (PDF) World Tourism Organization. 2013. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved on April 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017. Accessed July 1, 2017 .
  3. ↑ only accommodations with 10 or more beds
  4. ↑ https://www.stmwi.bayern.de/tourismus/daten-ffekten/
  5. ↑ MV is the most popular travel destination in Germany. In: NDR , March 4, 2015
  6. ↑ Tourism in figures: Federal Statistical Office, as of 2017 . 3.1 Arrivals and overnight stays in accommodation establishments in 2017
  7. ↑ International tourism, number of arrivals. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
  8. ↑ International tourism, receipts (current US $). Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Information on the website of the German Stage Association , accessed on March 2, 2016
  10. ↑ Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (ed.): Economic factor tourism Germany (long version) , 2012, p. 4 (PDF; 3 MB)
  11. ↑ https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2017/20170621-wirtschaftsffekt-tourismus-traegt-ueber-3-mrd-zur-wertschoepfung-deutschlands-bei.html
  12. ↑ About the BTW: Who we are and what we stand for. Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry, accessed on October 8, 2018 .
  13. ↑ City and cultural tourism in Germany. In: deutschertourismusverband.de , accessed on June 6, 2013, here p. 6 (PDF; 426 kB)
  14. ^ Foundation for Future Issues - an initiative by British American Tobacco : The triad of German holiday happiness: value for money, nature and friendliness. ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Forschungs Aktuell , 256, 35th year, July 1, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stiftungfuerzukunftsfragen.de
  15. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Monthly survey in tourism. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
  16. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Quality report (methodical descriptions) of the monthly survey in tourism. Retrieved December 8, 2017.