Website aids German popularity

The travel destination Germany has yet again set a new record for 2011, generating over 60 million overnight stays by foreign visitors to Germany for the second successive year. This result represents an additional increase of 5.8 million for 2010 and an extra 3.5 million overnight stays for 2011, respectively a ten per cent and 5.7 per cent increase year on year. In 2011 an overall plus of 2.8 per cent more overnight stays by UK visitors to Germany was calculated by the statisticians in comparison with 2010 but especially remarkable was the increase in December, due to the ever popular German Christmas markets. In numbers, 4.296 million overnight stays by British leisure and business travellers were generated in 2011, almost equalling the top score of 4.3 million UK overnight stays in 2006 (when Germany hosted the Football World Cup). After a successful year and an upward trend of 0.5 per cent in 2010, the number of Irish visitors to Germany receded slightly in 2011 by 5.8 per cent, following the severe and continued austerity measures by the Irish Government. Germany is becoming increasingly popular thanks also to the recently re-launched website. With less text and more images, the award nominated official website for travel destination Germany is designed to fuel the imagination and show Germany at its best. “In times of economic challenges a good philosophy is to invest. Especially in the UK, where the Internet is one of the most popular tools for destination research, the number of travellers to Germany has increased significantly, thanks to our re-designed website” says Klaus Lohmann, director of the German National Tourist Office in London.