By Chris Bradley
Germany seems to be becoming a very popular destination for tourists. The figures from September 2011 show that the country had the best figures since it became a unified country. This is a great result, especially considering the economic problems that Europe is having at the moment.
The German Federal Statistical Office reported that the number of overnight stays by international visitors went up by two percent year on year in September 2011. This takes their visitor numbers to 6.3 million. For the year so far there were 49.8 million visitors (up until the end of September) which is a six percent increase on the previous year.
The commissioner for SMEs and tourism, Ernst Burgbacher said that the figures showed just how popular Germany has become and that even when people are not taking so many holidays, they see the country as a good place to visit. He went on to say that it provided them with good value for money, high quality service, good safety and infrastructure and cultural diversity and appealed to people from all over the world. It seems that Germany can expect further growth next year as well as an IPK survey found that many European travellers are confident about the future and that they will be likely to travel abroad the same or more often next year compared to this year. The country is likely to see visitors from Austria, the Netherlands Spain and Switzerland but will still find Spain, Italy and the USA major competitors.
