After the end of the corona pandemic, tourists are returning to Bavaria in large numbers. Almost 3.6 million guests from Germany and abroad came to Bavaria in May, 13.1 percent more than a year earlier. This was announced by the State Statistical Office in Fürth on Tuesday.
In the year to date, from the beginning of January to the end of May, there were already 13.3 million, an increase of more than a third compared to the same period last year. The number of overnight stays in the first five months increased by almost 23 percent to 34.4 million. In the last year before the corona pandemic, the Fürth state authority reported a record 40 million guests in Bavaria in 2019. The pandemic then brought a sharp slump with its month-long lockdowns, only government aid saved many hoteliers and restaurateurs from bankruptcy.
The revival of the tourism industry is also reflected in the number of passengers at Munich Airport. In the first half of the year, the airport company counted 16.6 million passengers. That was 28 percent more than in the same period last year. But the second largest German airport after Frankfurt is still a long way from the pre-Corona figures: In the first half of 2019 there were still 6.1 million more passengers.
At 9.4 percent, the number of flight movements rose much more slowly than the number of passengers to 141,500. According to the airport, this increased the average load factor to a record level of almost 80 percent. But compared to the tourism boom before the pandemic, the number of visitors from overseas in particular has not yet returned to the old level. There are only comparatively few tour groups from China, as can be seen at popular tourist destinations such as Neuschwanstein Castle.