2024 was a record year for tourism in Germany

The number of overnight stays is thus 0.1 percent higher than the previous record year of 2019 I think is the biggest takeaway. Germany is finally back to where it was 5 years prior.

Its my impression, admittedly with little documented support (that I have seen), is that the biggest change in tourism isnt in raw numbers like these, but in all the details. Details like where, how long, how much $, and booking habits. Are there German cities that have increased substantially, while others have fallen? Are the shoulder seasons more crowded? Does that vary by location? Are there as many rooms today as 2019? Then we have information useful in personal travel planning. Germany is too large and too varied to treat as a whole. But this is a lot better than those that talk about Europe as a whole.

I do scratch my head about all of the "tourism explosion" articles. Real numbers like the ones MarkK posted are hard to find (or not worth my effort) but from what I read tourism in Europe as a whole for 2024 was predicted to be something less than 5% more than 2019. A few places like Spain and I suspect Croatia have accounted for the majority of the growth while most locations have only returned to 2019 levels (like Germany) and some places, mostly in Eastern Europe, have seen a decline.

As for the anti-tourism protests of the last few years, as tourism is just now equivelent to pre 2019, why dont I remember protests prior to 2019. Of course, that could just be my senior memory.

But interesting. Thanks for posting.

I found more interesting that the effect of Euro2024 seems to be comparable small.

Yesterday there was an interview with the CEO of TUI which was interesting. Their research showed that people are more saving money on other things (e. g. food) than on their vacation. Germans are still a power in the European travel market and the Corona break was shifting the focus on domestic destinations which is still perceivable in the numbers. Main reasons for the strength of German demand in Europe are the number of people, the number of paid vacation days and how much people can spend for traveling.

With this posting above I tried to give people interested in traveling to Germany a rough feeling of the market so that they can optimize their own bookings.

Its great information. Did it say where the tourism was strongest? Maybe it was up 10% in Berlin but down 10% someplace else? Or is it uniformly about the same as 2019 ... "no different than 5 years ago" is good for a tourist looking to escape the crowds of places like Spain. I poked around a little and noticed that spending by tourists, adjusted for inflation, is about the same as 2019 so thats good too in that Germany hasnt become "more" expensive to visit than it was. One thing that is missing that would be really informative is the number of tourist rooms now vs 2019. Did many close during the pandemic and not reopen yet and did the banning of short term rentals have much impact? Fewer rooms than 2019 plus more tourists than 2019 means more expenisve accommodations in the future. Thats good to know for plannning a holiday.

In the second link you see numbers by accommodation type. More information is announced to be available end of February.

The German tourist atlas (link and on page click on "link") provides more detailed information with numbers 2018-2023. Think I shared this already few months ago.

I wonder whether introduction of the Deutschland Ticket has had an impact. I think I may finally have an opportunity to take advantage of it this year, but it has been on my radar since it was first mentioned on this forum. I'd have returned to Germany before now if I hadn't had a large backlog of never-visited destinations to work through when the pandemic restrictions lifted.

May be. I do not have concrete numbers about it.

I just can say that the Deutschland Ticket supported the start of new annual punk protest camp on luxury vacation island of Sylt (link to YouTube video).

The assumption that this is only about tourism seems off...any increase in post-covid BUSINESS travel must be driving the numbers too.

Russ, then business isn't doing good either. If you were to take the year on year rate of growth prior to COVID, then apply it 2019 through 2024 you would see that tourism is quite a bit below where it would have been except for COVID. In other words, tourism still hasn't caught up yet.

Good to know.

Since I was there solo as part of the "guests from aboard" category, I contributed to this record year.

I would assume the record year increase can also be attributed to Germany's sponsoring the soccer matches which were held in 10 German cities from mid-June to 14 July.

Apart from German trains not being on time, I did notice too , subjectively, that they were crowded in the summer, any type of train, regional and ICE. Getting on without a seat reservation on the ICE is just whimsical on finding a seat on trunk routes. Unless you want to risk standing for an hour or two or go from coach to coach , you had better get the seat reservation. Even that night train from Berlin to Offenburg was packed, and I did see people bumped for not having a seat reservation on that route.

The numbers also reinforce a point I try to make to travelers in any country. Often you hear people speak of how they were the "only tourists" in a restaurant filled with "locals" (or substitute any venue), or trying to find "non-tourist" places. But you simply never know when 80+ percent of the tourists in an area, are natives of that country. Most of those domestic tourists, eat in tourist places, go see tourist sights, and generally do tourist things.