Inbound tourism: Recovery in sight since June

Nevertheless, recent weeks have given me reason for cautious optimism: according to the latest ForwardKeys surveys, flight arrivals from 13 EU source markets during the week commencing 19 June reached 25 per cent of the comparable prior-year levels. And during the week commencing 10 July 2020, the level reached 30 per cent of the prior-year volume in the markets surveyed. Our chart clearly shows that high-volume source markets are recovering.

What is also interesting is that flights from neighbouring countries are recovering particularly well, despite the fact that it is possible to travel overland. Arrivals from Switzerland reached 47 per cent of the prior-year levels in the week commencing 10 July, while that figure was 36 per cent for Austria and 39 per cent for France.

This corresponds with the forecast that neighbouring markets will be the quickest to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown.

Good personal travel experiences that are widely shared are important now, and we are very happy that the first influencers from several neighbouring countries are already travelling through Germany. Our grand series of tours for journalists will begin in September.

The federal government’s new tourism centre of excellence has produced a handy guide for travellers to Germany that explains the latest rules for each federal state in 45 sections. Simply click on each federal state to find out more, or use the filters to search for the availability of specific offers. This information can be useful in communications with your guests. You can find the tourism guide here.

Huge response to our empathy campaign

It has been truly astonishing how many people we were able to persuade to take a virtual trip to Germany post-lockdown. Since our Germany – Dreams Become Reality campaign launched in mid-June, it has generated around 160 million impressions on social media in four weeks. Almost a million microsite users, 5.4 million interactions, an engagement rate of 15.6 per cent and 1.65 million video views are an excellent result, and clear proof that interest in Destination Germany remains strong.

I am proud of our team, which since the outbreak of the coronavirus has been flexible and always successful in finding the right tools to promote our joint product.

Digitalisation project continues to bear fruit

A further cause for optimism is the progress being made with the hugely important digitalisation of offerings in Germany. More and more service providers are working on the open-data project, and it is all the more important, therefore, to highlight best practice and provide specific instructions. Our recently published guide, ‘Open Data im Deutschlandtourismus – Ein Wegweiser zur digitalen Destination’ (open data in the German inbound tourism industry – how to become a digital destination) has arrived just in time, and I highly recommend that you read it. Up-to-date and structured information, for example on available tourism capacity, travel restrictions and varying distancing and hygiene rules, is vital if our customers are to find us, book with us and enjoy an unforgettable holiday in Germany.

The manual is available for download here.

I wish you all a pleasant summer, whether at home, around the world or on the road in Destination Germany.

Yours,

Petra Hedorfer