Hotel keepers and providers of holiday accommodation and camp sites in Germany could benefit from a further increasing demand within the first eleven months of the year 2017. In total, the number of overnights in the accommodation section has risen by 2.5% from January to November 2017 compared with the previous year.

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The diagram above shows the number of overnight stays in the five most important touristic regions in the North and South of Germany (blue bars) as well as in the five largest German cities (grey bars). In addition, the growth rates of overnight stays from January to November 2017 compared with the previous year are indicated with the green graph and figures.

Except for the holiday regions at the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, hotels and accommodation providers in all other regions and cities under review accomplished an increase in overnight stays within the last year. This can be traced back to the continuing trend to vacations spent in Germany as a result of increased international risks for terrorist attacks as well as difficult political situations in some foreign holiday regions. Besides, the strong increase of overnights in the cities result from the continuous growth of urban tourism on the one hand and an increasing number of business trips fostered by the on-going positive economic framework in Germany on the other hand.[1]

Germany’s five biggest cities could benefit from these trends with predominantly strong growth rates: Front runner in this respect is Munich, where the number of overnight stays increased by 11%, followed by Cologne with over 8%. This exceptionally positive development is, however, also a result of the poor figures in the previous year due to the rampage in Munich in August 2016 and the incidences in Cologne at New Year’s Eve 2015/16.

Amongst German cities, Berlin has by far the highest number of overnight stays with almost 29 million from January to November 2017. Therewith, the German capital not only exceeds the number of overnights counted in accommodation in Munich and Hamburg together (around 27 million Jan.-Nov. 2017); with a share of 6.7%, Berlin also contributes more to the total overnight stays in Germany than each of the holiday regions in the three northern federal states Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein und Mecklenburg- East Pomerania as well as the selected regions in Baden-Württemberg (Black Forest and Lake Constances [&] Swabian Alps). However, after years of extremely high growth rates in overnights, the increase compared with the previous year in Berlin only amounts to 1% and is thus smaller than in the other cities and on average this time.

The total number of overnight stays within the five tourism regions under review amounted to 117.5 million from January to November 2017, which are equivalent to 27% of all overnights in Germany during this period. Albeit, the increase versus 2016 only comes up to 1.5% altogether, which is also smaller than in the accommodation section in total in Germany (2.5%).

Compared with both, the total share of the cities and their respective growth rates, the importance of urban tourism and business travellers for the accommodation section becomes obvious: The five biggest cities alone comprise 70.5 million overnights, which are 16% of the total figure. Besides, this number has recently risen by 5% versus the year before. What is more, the total of all German towns with more than 100 000 inhabitants contribute almost a third overnight stays in the German accommodation section (31%), i.e. their share is higher than the one of the five major tourism regions in the North and South of Germany.

Other figures can be found here.