German accommodation providers recorded more than 28 million overnight stays from domestic and foreign guests in February. That was the highest February value in four years – the month before the Corona crisis.
Tourism to Germany increased significantly in February. According to preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office, the number of overnight stays by domestic and foreign guests rose by 6.9 percent to 28.2 million compared to the same month last year. That was the highest February value since 2020. At that time, 29.9 million overnight stays were counted in the last month before the start of the corona pandemic.
Temporarily back to pre-Corona levels as early as 2023
For domestic guests, hotels, guesthouses and other accommodation providers recorded an increase in the number of overnight stays of 7.3 percent to 23.1 million. Travelers from abroad contributed an increase of 5.1 percent to 5.1 million to the February balance.
In the first two months of this year, a total of 53.3 million overnight stays were counted, 5.9 percent more than in the same period last year. By 2023, tourism in Germany had almost left the Corona crisis behind. Compared to the previous year, the number of overnight stays was more than eight percent higher.
Campsites were particularly popular
With around 487 million stays, the record year of 2019 before the pandemic last year was only missed by 1.7 percent. The number of overnight stays by tourists at both the beginning and the end of the year was still somewhat behind the 2019 values. But from May to October there were about the same number of overnight stays.
Record numbers of 46.9 and 49.5 million were reached in May and September respectively. Summer tourism has therefore already been able to fully recover from the pandemic and has shown itself to be robust even in the face of a weakening economy.
The number of overnight stays in the hotel industry – i.e. hotels, inns and guesthouses – was still slightly below the pre-crisis level of 2019. The development was different for holiday accommodation and camping sites: while holiday accommodation only slightly exceeded the level (0.9 percent ), the campsites were even able to significantly increase their overnight stays compared to 2019 (18.3 percent).