Germany increasingly popular as holiday destination
August 8, 2019
More people flocked to Germany on holiday as temperatures soared to record highs in July.
The German government's statistical office, Destatis, reported on Thursday that foreigners spent 39.8 million nights in German hotels in the first half of 2019, which was a rise of 3% on the previous year.
Destatis carried out the study in tandem with Germany's tourism industry federation, the BTW.
Domestic travel in Germany also increased by 4%, which brought an overall increase of 3.8%.
2018 was a record-breaking year for Germany's tourism industry: For the ninth year in a row, travel in the country boomed. That trend is expected to continue through 2019.
Foreign travel on the rise despite climate concerns
Germans were also more likely to travel abroad in this first period of 2019, which BTW said contradicted expectations they had before.
Germans spent 480 million days on trips abroad and holidays between January and April, which was a 1.2% rise on the figures from 2018.
BTW President Michael Frenzel said in the report that "the fact that Germans are traveling more runs contrary to the increasing skepticism over travel, due to climate change."
Germany logged its highest-ever temperatures in July, beating its national temperature record twice as Europe sweltered through a month of record heat.