Building Bridges

Amid ongoing challenges affecting tourism to Europe, Germany posted record results for the seventh straight year with 80.8 million registered international overnights in 2016 — up 1.1 million from the previous year, reports Ann Ruppenstein in this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.

Speaking at the 43rd annual Germany Travel Mart (GTM) from May 7 to May 9 — and hosted by Bavaria Tourism and Nuremberg Convention and Tourist Office — Petra Hedorfer, chief executive officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), said that although “we are living in turbulent times,” she’s optimistic the destination is set for up to 2% growth and early results from the start of the year suggest these predictions are on track.

“[The growth] is very good given what is happening after the terror attack in Berlin. It clearly [indicates] that travellers feel safe here,” Hedorfer said.

“A lot has happened around the world since the last GTM, not all of it went [well], unfortunately… We in Germany stand for openness and tolerance and we welcome people of all nations with great respect from the bottom of our hearts,” she stated, before continuing: “Tourism can build bridges among people, among nations. That’s our industry so let us do everything we can to ensure that we continue to bring together cultures, peoples, nations, all around the world to wherever it is in Germany. The tourism industry, if I may say, can make the world a little bit better.”

Despite the overall increase in foreign visitors, Canadian overnights decreased by 28,000, down 4.3% compared to last year, but Antje Splettstoesser, director of the German National Tourist Office in Canada, is quick to point out the figures don’t include a significant number of Canadians who visit the country via river cruises.

“The recorded overnights for Germany by the federal government are only based on hotels that are 10-beds plus, as well as camping grounds, and in there we have seen a ditch of 4.3%, but we also look at other statistics measuring visits to Germany for example recorded by Statistics Canada, and if you look at the development over the last five years, in 2015 we had a 20% growth in terms of visits, which has made us basically the second fastest growing destination in Europe, right after Spain,” she said.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press by clicking here.