Germany Sees Record Results
International travel to Germany reached a record high for the fifth year in a row in 2014, with a total of 75.6 million overnight stays.
According to the German Federal Statistical Office, the number of overnight stays by visitors from abroad in accommodation establishments with 10 or more beds went up by 3.7 million in the period from January to December, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%.
Petra Hedorfer, chief executive officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), commented, “Once again we are able to look back on an outstanding set of results – our record in 2014 provides further evidence that Germany has arrived in the top tier of international travel destinations. Arrivals went up by 4.6%. This means we are comfortably above the comparable growth rate for Europe, which the UNWTO puts at 3.9%, and on a par with the global growth rate of 4.7%. The latest UNWTO forecasts suggest that the international travel market will expand by between 3% and 4% cent in 2015. We will build on last year’s strong performance and take a bigger than average cut of this growth. This will lay the perfect foundation for our long-term outlook of achieving 121.5 million international overnight stays a year by 2030, which we believe is a realistic objective.”
Europe continues to be the biggest player in inbound tourism to Germany, accounting for roughly 75% of the market with Switzerland contributing the highest volume of absolute growth in 2014.
