Holidaymakers change plans

Planned holidays in the south Mediterranean were likely to change with new destinations further north being sought, travel journalists were told by the head of the German tourism office.

“There will be shifting of holidaymakers and our challenge is to offer attractive prices and so on,” Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the German National Tourist Board, said when asked about the impact of turmoil in North Africa and the Gulf on travel plans this summer.

Germany is one of the destinations that is likely to benefit from such change of travel plans. Germany had a success 2010 in terms of the performance of its tourism industry and is very upbeat for this year too.

“Having set a new record of more than 60 million overnight stays by international visitors last year, we are seeing growing demand and expect to hit the 80 million mark in 10 years at most,” Ms Hedorfer said.

The country is looking at a growth of between two and four per cent in inbound tourism and the domestic market is expected to increase by up to two per cent, meaning a total of up to 390 million overnight stays this year.

Germany plans to post 80 million overnight stays by international visitors by 2020.

The majority will still come from Europe and an additional 14 million overnight stays are being forecast, with Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Italy offering the greatest potential.

By the end of the decade, Germany expects the annual number of overnight stays from Asia to grow by four million and North America is expected to contribute an additional two million overnight stays.

Figures released at the German Travel Mart 2011, just held in Cologne, shows that 29,642 travelled from Malta to Germany, an increase of 13.2 per cent over 2009.

Since 2004, Germany has continuously outperformed the rest of Europe in terms of growth and on the popularity scale it now ranks second, behind Spain and ahead of France. Italy and Austria are fourth and fifth.

Considered as Europe’s top destination for conventions and conferences, business travel from European countries to Germany grew by 12 per cent last year, according to IPK International’s European Travel Monitor.

“With total revenues of about €66 billion, business travel is a key economic factor for tourism in Germany, which is why it features so prominently in our marketing plans,” Ms Hedorfer said.