Trends in German Tourism. Incoming and outgoind international Tourism

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2.Incoming Tourism
2.1. Source markets
2.2. Tourist entries by accommodation used
2.3. Tourist entries by means of transport used for entering the country
2.4. Motivations and purposes for travelling to Germany
2.5. Types ofbooking when travelling to Germany
2.6. German Inbound Business Travel
2.7. The importance of tourism for the German economy

3. Domestic and international tourism
3.1. Development of travel propensity in and outside Germany between 1954 and
3.2. Means of transport
3.3. Accompanied travel
3.4. Main holidays and additional holidays
3.5. Time of travel
3.6. Duration of German holidays
3.7. Motivations of Germans travelling in and outside Germany
3.8. Different travel behaviour between West Germans and East German

4. Trends in German Tourism
4.1. Trends in consumer
4.2. Trends in products
4.3. Trends in marketing

5. Conclusion

References

1. Introduction

Fascinating, boring, music, opera, film, carnival, romantic, sculpture, relaxing, spiritual, informative, sports, circus¹- Germany is everything, except monotone.

Both international tourists and travel-friendly Germans love to experience German culture and get in touch with a colourful mixture ofhistory and future, arts and music or even beer and wine.

Germans themselves also love to travel abroad. Named as the "world champions of holiday making", German travellers spent more than 72 million holidays abroad and 60,6 billion€ in 2010.

Therefore, the aim of this seminar paper is to examine quantitative aspects of the German inbound and outbound tourism and to deal with trends affecting the tourism industry. I am going to concentrate my focus on the following questions:

- How does the German inbound tourism look like and how does it influence German economy?
- How does the German outbound tourism look like and which are the main kinds of transport Germans use to travel?
- What are the main trends affecting German tourism customers, products and marketing?

2.Incoming Tourism

For many decades, Germany has been one of the most popular destinations for holidays and business trips. There has been a qualitative and quantitative growth in tourism both to and within Germany. But especially the FIFA World Cup in 2006 improved the image of Germany as an excellent host. People from all over the world had seen its diversity and the willingness to welcome tourists at any time.

In 2010, Germany reached more than 380 million national and international overnight stays and recorded nearly 30 million international arrivals. As a whole, 53 billion € gross sales were gained by over night guests². Totalling, Germany received more than 26 billion € by international tourism.

And it was the first time Germany was the second most popular travel destination for Europeans (behind Spain).³

And Europeans made the big majority of all overnight stays in Germany (76%), followed by Americans (10%) and Asians (9%). Germany is even considered to be the largest domestic tourism market within the European Union: travellers from the E.U recorded more than 180 million overnight stays.⁴

Totalling the overnight stays of all foreign visitors in the European Union (705.7 million), Germany has final a market share of 7% (48,6 million overnight stays).⁵Principally, international tourists stayed in big cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. According to the German Tourism Board, the following cities have a market share of almost 40% of all overnight stays in Germany:

Top towns and cities in Germany in 2010 (overnights stays)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

When analyzing popular destinations within Germany, it must be said that the province ofBavaria was the most successful one with 13,5 million international overnight stays in 2010. But also the city state Berlin (8,5 million) and Nordrhein­Westfalen (8,2 million)

2.1. Source markets

According to overnight stays, the most significant source markets for Germany are the Netherlands (10.5 million), the United States (4.8 million), Switzerland (4.2 million), the United Kingdom (4.2 million), Italy (3.3 million) and Austria (2.8 million). Indeed, China and Hong Kong are the fasted growing source market for Germany (plus 33.3%) and picture one ofvarious challenges facing German tourism.⁶

illustration not visible in this excerpt

While China and Hong Kong reached almost 290,000 overnight stays in 2004, these dynamic markets developed more than 1.1 million overnight stays in 2010. And analysts even forecast a capacity of 2.2 million overnights in 2020.⁷

2.2. Tourist entries by accommodation used

Foreign travellers preferred to stay in hotels (57 %) or Bed and Breakfast hotels (18%) during their overnight stays. This implies a market share of 74 % ofhotels and b&b-hotels. Other popular kinds of accommodation were campsites (6%), inns (4%) and holiday centres (4%).⁸

Compared with other European destinations, Germany attracted overnight travellers especially with an excellent price/performance ratio. While the average price for a hotel room in the European Union was about 97€, Germany was advantageous due to an average price of 90€. The most expensive German city, concerning prices for hotel rooms, was Frankfurt with an average price of 118€, followed by Munich (109€), Hamburg and Stuttgart (both 100€), Bonn (107€) and Düsseldorf (106€). In Berlin, tourists had only 88€ in average.

2.3. Tourist entries by means of transport used for entering the country

The following diagram shows the different kinds transports European visitors used to enter Germany. Surprisingly, most travellers used a car when coming to Germany (50%). Only 29% of all travellers entered the country by plane, coach (9%) or train (7%).⁹This behaviour might be a result of the close source markets. While tourists from the Netherlands, Switzerland. Italy or Austria may reach Germany more easily by car, visitors from the US may have the biggest part in air transport.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

2.4. Motivations and purposes for travelling to Germany

Generally, European holidaymakers travelling to Germany have a whole host of requirements and expectations with regard to their stay in Germany. Motivations and wishes are widely, ranging from enjoying nature, having fun in a theme park or gentling sport or games. Concerning the "Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus",

European travellers loved having a city trip (26%) and getting around Germany (19%). On the contrary to this exciting holiday, spending recreational time in the country was also very appreciated (10%) by European travellers in 2010.¹⁰21,3 million European travellers purposed to stay in Germany for a vacation trip and even 11,3 million Europeans stayed more then 4 nights in Germany.

2.5. Types of booking when travelling to Germany

According to the German National Tourist Board, European travellers used the Internet as the main instrument for booking their holidays to Germany (71%). Only 17% used a travel agent. Besides, direct booking of accommodation (22%) and transport (9%) are also considered as important tools for booking holidays to Germany. Consequently, Germany should carry on to use a multi-channel strategy to attract international (especially European) travellers.¹¹

2.6. German Inbound Business Travel

According to the German National Tourist Board, Germany is the most popular destination for business trips among Europeans. In 2010, Germany received 11,3 million business trips, made by Europeans.¹²51% of all business trips were made for traditional business purposes, 24% business travellers came to Germany because of congresses or conferences and 23% because of exhibitions and trade fairs. Only 2% of all business trips were incentives. All in all, Germany gained 64 billion € by business travel (including overnight stays).

In 2009, Germany received 2,05 million foreigners visiting exhibitions or trade fairs. Like usual, most of them 68% came from the European Union, followed by travellers from Non-European-Union countries (14,6%).¹³

2.7. The importance of tourism for the German economy

The German tourism industry is one of the most important constant concerning German economy. The total economic output value of the tourism industry was defined as 185 billion € in the year 2010. The valued added was 94 million €. This implies that the tourism industry gained nearly 4% of the German Gross Domestic Product. Besides, almost 3 million people were employed in the filed of tourism and gastronomy. Especially the retail industry, service providers, restaurants and the hospitality industry benefit importantly from tourism. The importance of tourism in destinations, which are economically less, developed like Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Sachsen-Anhalt is rather higher than in high-developed regions like Bavaria.

[...]

¹ Cf. Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 6

² Cf. Incoming Tourism (2011): 8

³ Cf. Incoming Tourism (2011): 4

⁴ Cf. Incoming Tourism (2011): 7

⁵ Cf. Incoming Tourism (2011): 7

⁶ Cf. Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 13

⁷ Cf .Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 13

⁸ Cf. IncomingTourismGermany (2011): 11

⁹ Cf. Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 17

¹⁰ Cf.Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 8

¹¹ Cf. Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 20

¹² Cf. IncomingTourismGermany (2011): 15

¹³ Cf. Incoming Tourism Germany (2011): 14