International Tourism
“The tourism in Germany”
Essay by Florian Otto BECKER

Introduction:
Germany is the seventh most visited country in the world with an estimated total of 31,5 Million visitors in 2014. It is a widely diverse country that has to show and offer vast numbers of attractions. From the North - and Baltic Seas with its coasts and islands to the Alps, this nation situated in the heart of Europe, offers nature parks, beautiful landscapes, strongholds from the medieval age and authentic Roman treasures as well as a well-developed infrastructure. But obviously there is not just nature or old notable things to see. Germany likewise offers also some of the absolute most energizing cities on the planet where one can appreciate shopping, celebrating, and the excellent restaurants and cafés in the heart of every city.
History:
The historical backdrop of tourism in Germany goes back to the ancient Romans who used Germanic healing springs and founded cities with spas as Aquae Granni (Aachen) and Aquae Mattiacorum (Wiesbaden). As a result of teachings of Balneology, the first German Spas like Bad Schwallbach established from 1581. From the late eighteenth century onwards, urban communities like Dresden, Munich, Weimar and Berlin were significant stops on a European Grand tour. In the 19th century, noble spa- and health resorts on the coast and inland established when major train routes were built to connect the seaside spas to urban centers. Main travel destinations of the European upper classes, included spa towns such as Baden-Baden, Bad Ems, Bad Pyrmont, Wiesbaden and the seaside resort on the Baltic coast such as Binz, Heiligendamm and Heringsdorf among many others. The German word “Bad” means “bath” or “spa”, so most of the important resorts are named after that.
After the Second World War, the mass tourism developed. In the GDR (German Democratic Republic or known as East Germany), this was organized by the Free German Trade Union Federation. Since the reunification, international tourism increases in Germany significantly, especially in the new federal states, as many tourists visited it to experience a sense of European history and the diverse German landscape.

Cultural and urban tourism

Urban tourism records especially the big cities and individual famous touristic cities in Germany. There is a smooth transition to cultural tourism, which is arranged around central music and theater deals or celebrations and festivals around. The most valuable old town, such as Heidelberg, Bamberg, Lübeck, Regensburg, Rothenburg and Stralsund and the largest German cities, especially Berlin, Hamburg and Munich draw particularly well as visitors from around the world. Regarding quantities of overnight stays, travel to the twelve biggest cities in Germany dramatically increased about more than double between 1995 and 2005, the biggest increment of any travel destination. This expansion basically emerges from growth of cultural tourism, regularly in conjunction with instructive or business travel. Therefore, the procurement and supply of progressively and higher standards of cultural, amusement, hospitality, retail and gastronomic services also attracts more international guests. Guests may stay in cities usually considerably shorter than in rural tourism places, but are spending more money a day on average. According to GNTB Market Research (2013), the top towns and cities in Germany in 2013 by overnight stays are Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Dresden, Hanover and Leipzig with a cumulated market share of 43% of all overnight stays by foreign visitors in Germany. The most important ones will be presented below:

Berlin:
A federal state and the Capital of Germany is one of the most visited centers of the national and international urban tourism. In 2014, approximately 28.7 million overnight stays were counted in Berlin accommodation facilities. This is in comparison to 2001 (11.3 million overnight stays by 4.9 million people), an increase of about 154 percent. In addition, each year, more than 130 million day visitors are counted to explore the city. Berlin is therefore after London and Paris, the third most visited destination within Europe.
In June 2014, the hotel business in Berlin had 788 units with a bed capacity of approximately 134,000. The length of stay of hotel guests was 2.4 days on average. International guests make up about 40 percent of the visits. Here are visitors from Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States in the top group. Main attractions are architectural, historical sites, museums, festivals, shopping, night life and major events, the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually include. Berlin is widely associated with its World War II history and former division of East and West Germany by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. Since the fall of the historic wall in 1989, Berlin today is now a vast, unified city diverse in ethnic groups and abundant in sightseeing attractions, culture and nightlife. Many tourists are drawn to Berlin’s famous historic structures, which include the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Although most of the Berlin Wall was demolished, there are some portions still standing near Checkpoint Charlie and Reichstag where tourists love to go. Furthermore, popular sightseeing targets are the Holocaust Memorial, the East Side Gallery, Alexanderplatz, Europes largest department store – the KaDeWe, or the Charlottenburg castle among many other interesting places, that are worth visiting. Besides that, Berlin attracts a significant number of business visitors through its several large-scale trade fairs such as the IFA (International radio exhibition Berlin), the Berlin Fashion Week or the Green Week.
Through the positive development in the past decade, the tourism industry in Berlin has become an important pillar of the regional economy. In addition to the hotel and catering industry also benefits retailers largely on the Berlin tourist. With an annual turnover of around nine billion euros and an employment effect of about 230,000 jobs, the tourism in Berlin has established as a key sector for the city.

Munich:
Munich, the capital of Bavaria and passage to the Alps is a standout amongst the most lovely and green urban communities in Germany. It offers traditional German architecture and first class museums, a salute to Bavaria’s illustrious past. More than 6 million visitors each year are attracted to Munich’s most famous hospitality and culture event, known as the Oktoberfest. The attractions and shopping opportunities in the city, but also its trade fairs and conventions attract many tourists and business travelers. The jury of the National Geographic Traveler sat Munich 2008 among the world's best 110 historic places to rank 30. The number of overnight stays grew 2014 to 13,4 million (increase of 4.3 percent to 2013). Of these, 6.7 million traveled from abroad. The Americans were with 750,000 overnight stays the largest foreign tourist group. A special feature of Munich in the summer months are the many Arab tourists from the Gulf region (613,000 overnight stays), which not only shop in the city center, but often provide medical care during their stay in Munich clinics. In addition, Munich was the most popular German destination for guests from the Asian region in 2013. With an increase of 13 percent to 1.4 million overnight stays from this market Munich was able to win further market share and strengthen its position. This positive balance decisively contributed to the Southeast Asian market, such as the increase of 18.8 percent occupied at 236,000 overnight stays. The Chinese guests made with 207,000 overnight stays for an increase of 13.3 percent. This includes Southeast Asia and China's top ten export markets of Munich.

Hamburg
Hamburg is the nation's second biggest city and situated in the North of Germany. It brags one of the greatest harbors on the planet and is celebrated for its fabulous nightlife center point "Reeperbahn", which is additionally home to the city's red light district. With several waterways running through its center, Hamburg has maritime charm. Besides that, it’s home to more bridges than Amsterdam, London and Venice has combined. Popular tourist attractions are the Harbor of Hamburg, which port is the third biggest in the world after New York and London, the famous Fish Market, the historic warehouse district or the baroque church of St. Michaelis among several others. As a matter of that, tourism in Hamburg experienced since the start of musicals in the mid-80s an almost entirely positive development. Between 2004 and 2014 the number of overnight stays increased by 103 %. In 2014, 6.1 million guests spent 12 million nights in the 348 commercial accommodations in Hamburg. The average length of stay was 2 days. Between 2004 and 2014, foreign demand grew by 140 % and domestic demand by 93%. In total, around 24 % of all overnight stays were generated by foreign guests in Hamburg in 2014. With that increase of 140 % since 2004 Hamburg achieved the strongest growth after Berlin among the top German cities . In long-term comparison Hamburg was able to expand its market share since 1990 over its competitors as the only metropolis next to Berlin.

Frankfurt/Main:
On account of its International Airport, Frankfurt is the significant center point for Germany and Europe. The city is also the financial center of the country, which is reflected in Frankfurt’s gleaming skyscrapers. Frankfurt is host to numerous important occasions, among them the International Book Fair in October, the greatest of its kind on the planet. Tourism is of vital and growing importance for Frankfurt. In addition to business travelers and visitors of the city is interesting more and more tourists from all over the world. 2014 Frankfurt had recorded 4.8 million visitors and was thus in a national comparison behind Berlin, Munich and Hamburg at number 4 of the most popular city break destinations. In 2014 Frankfurt reached new record figures, both in the Guest as well as the number of overnight stay. First came almost 4.8 Million overnight visitors (+ 6.7%). With more than 8.0 million Overnights (+ 7.3%), the accommodation establishments recorded so many Nights like never before. The most important foreign source market remains, by far, the United States with 512,000 overnight stays (+ 12.4 %). Above-average increase are the Tourism figures from the Arab Gulf States with a total of 230 000 Nights (+ 32.2%). The confederation is in overnight stays the second most important overseas market. With regard to the volume of guests is China with 131,000 guests (+ 15.0 %) and 218,000 overnight stays (+ 14.0 %), the second most important overseas region. Furthermore, however, Frankfurt has the highest population/guest ratio: Definitely residents come in statistical terms around 5 guests.

Mountain-, Hiking- and Biking tourism

The German mountains play an active role for tourists in the winter as well as in the summer. During the cold months, the fundamental winter sport districts in Germany are the Bavarian Alps and Northern Limestone Alps, and also the Ore Mountains, Harz Mountains, Fichtel Mountains and Bavarian Forest in addition with the central Uplands. Skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing and bobsledding is available as a result of high class winter sport infrastructure in more than 600 winter sport areas. During the summer hiking, mountaineering and mountain biking plays a significant role for keen on sports tourists. The highest mountains in Germany are in the Alps of Bavaria and Allgäu. The low mountain range, for example, Bavarian Forest, Black Forest, Harz and Rhön are destinations for hikers. Even flatter areas in the north of Germany like the cliffs on Rügen or Mecklenburg landscapes in the hilly glacial landscape Lakeland are popular hiking destinations. Cycle tourism is a popular form of active holidays . Germany offers excellent developed tourist routes. Two types can be distinguished: A cycling tour with several stages, from one overnight stop to the next; and cycling trips always from the same quarter. Throughout whole Germany, bicycle lanes are connecting almost all cities as well as crossing beautiful landscapes and lakes. Some of them are also located apart from main streets and surrounded by nature.

Tourism on the sea and lakes

Beach tourism and water sports are on coasts and islands of the North and Baltic Seas is of great importance, especially in the German seaside resorts. These tourism sectors are also very important to the Great Lakes as the Mecklenburg Lake District with the Müritz, Plauer and Lake Schwerin, Lake Constance, Lake Chiemsee, Lake Kummerow and Lake Starnberg. In addition, most of the German sea- and lake resorts are offering campsites for caravans, which attract a lot of camping tourists that want to spend their holidays in their own mobile home. Shopping tourism Shopping tourism takes place, inter alia, at the regional level, for example, from the villages or smaller towns into the middle and upper centres or cities. Furthermore, shopping tourism occurs in border areas because of price differentials between neighbouring countries, or because of different assortments. One example is the town of Flensburg that is located immediately on the Danish border. Because of the comparatively low taxation of goods in Germany, Scandinavian people rather buy here. As a matter of that, Danish is spoken next to German in the border shopping centres in Flensburg and the surrounding areas. The German border traders call their sales outlets "Scandinavian Park" or "Dansk Vinlager" to make it clear that they have focused on the Danish customers. Though, a new trend in south Germany could be observed, as many Swiss citizens made their shopping in Germany because of the expensive Swiss Franc after the abolition of the minimum course. Besides that, Factory Outlets throughout Germany pull customers from other European countries in places like Metzingen or in the Ingolstadt Village near Ingolstadt.

Economic View:

Tourism is an important economic activity in Germany, both in the rural areas as well as in the cities. Catering and accommodation business is benefiting from tourism besides retail trade, service providers and suppliers of leisure and entertainment facilities. In Germany there are currently around 2,500 tour operators, almost 10,000 travel agencies and about 4,800 bus companies to operate. Furthermore, there are almost 222,000 companies in the hospitality industry, including about 45,000 lodging companies and 177,000 gastronomic businesses. Apart from a few large tourism companies that offer everything under one roof, the German tourism industry is predominantly medium-sized. In Germany, the tourism has a turnover of 140 billion euros with 2.8 million employees .125,3 million guests ( 101,5 million from the domestic market , 23.5 million from abroad ) actuated 351.4 million overnight stays (of which 298.5 million by residents and 52.9 million by foreigners ) in 54,200 units with about 2,6 million beds . Conclusion: Germany offers an assortment of spots to stay depending on the amount tourists want to spend and what sort of extravagance they need. Hotels like the famous Hotel Adlon in Berlin or the "Bayerische Höfe" in Munich are known for their extravagance, luxury and exceptional service everywhere throughout the world. Moreover, the right places for family vacancies can be found in huge quantities and almost everywhere as Germany is known as a “child friendly country”. Germany offers cheap family lofts, overnight boarding- and guesthouses as well as bed and breakfasts. For youngsters, backpackers and explorers each city has an assortment of youth hostels offering four, six or ten bed rooms. Prices is between 10 and 30 euros per night including a breakfast buffet, TV, and bed material, depending on the city and the hostel. Though, Germany is a safe country where the police is efficient and courteous. Furthermore it has one of the best open transportation systems as it ranks on seventh place regarding The Global Competitiveness Index 2014-2015. In Germany, urban public transport, often a combination of buses, underground, trams and trolleys, has been strong and efficient since the days of postwar reconstruction, and it’s hard to single out any particular town or city. Travelling to Germany will promise an experience and an exceptional adventure. It doesn’t make a difference in which part or federal state one will visit, each one has its own effects making it an unforgettable trip. Germany has such a great amount to offer, from urban areas to national parks, from hiking to kayaking. From beaches for swimming during the summer months to the Alps for skiing in the winter, from amusement and entertainment to culinary experiences in the German kitchen. Regardless of what one is searching for, one will discover it. A visit to Germany will be an experience one will always remember.

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