TRAVEL to Germany is increasing at a faster rate than ever. According to statistics from the Federal Statistical Office, overnight stays by international visitors in accommodation establishments with more than ten beds totalled 64.2 million in the first eleven months of 2012. This equates to an increase of 8.1 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year.
“As a travel destination, Germany remained extremely popular with visitors from around the world in 2012,” explained Ernst Burgbacher, member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism.
“According to IPK International’s latest ‘trend telegram’, Destination Germany is performing especially positively compared with other travel destinations,” emphasised Petra Hedorfer, chief executive officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). “Inbound travel to Germany is experiencing strong growth by comparison with other European countries.”
“In the first eleventh months of 2012 the highly positive uptrend in inbound travel continued from the record levels seen in 2010 and 2011. Destination Germany looks set to achieve a record number of overnight stays again in 2012,” added Hedorfer. The mark of one million overnight stays by travellers from the GCC countries was outdone in 2011 for the very first time. Yet, the Arab Gulf States maintained their highly positive trend, with overnight stays rising by 27.7 per cent as compared to the same timeframe in the previous year, with 1,216,490 overnight stays by GCC travellers in the first eleven months of 2012.
Visitors from this region are particularly high spenders: according to IPK International’s World Travel Monitor, their average spending on a trip to Germany was €3,850 ($5,136) in 2011. By comparison, the average for visitors from Europe was €511 ($681).
“The GCC countries continue to represent one of the top twenty source markets in the German tourism industry and the latest figures demonstrate that the popularity of Germany as travel destination is continuously on the rise in this region,” said Antje Roeding-Boudier, director of the marketing and sales office for the Gulf Countries at the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) in Dubai.
“When focussing more specifically on the Arabian Gulf market, the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) operates to present the broad range of traditional and innovative possibilities that Germany offers to its Arab visitors,” she continued.
The overall outlook for global outbound travel in 2013 is positive. In a survey by IPK, 28 per cent of respondents said that they intended to travel abroad at least once this year – up by around 5 per cent compared with 2012.