Prospects for the development of foreign tourism in Germany
Despite the fact that Germany is the main guiding tourist market in the world, it forms large-scale tourist traffic to travel abroad and has the largest negative balance of turbalance, the tourism sector of this country occupies a significant place in GDP (8%), employing about 3 million people. That is why the entire tourism system belongs to the Ministry of Economy, which includes the National Council for Tourism, which carries out state regulation of the tourism industry in Germany. In addition, there is the German Center for Tourism Development – a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the tourist opportunities of Germany within the country and abroad. The priority activities of the German Tourism Development Center are as follows:
– Strengthening the image of Germany as a tourist destination;
– Achieving growth of all indicators of tourism development at the world level;
– Tourist use of transport infrastructure;
– Keeping Germany the title of “Country No.1 in Europe on business trips” (thematic motto of 2012);
– Support international communication;
– The use and development for tourist purposes of the cultural heritage of Germany;
– The development of health tourism on a national scale, as the German Center for Tourism Development announced the theme of 2011 “Recreation Vacation”;
– Development of tourism products, taking into account the environmental factor;
– Support the internationalization of cities and regions;
– Global use of multi-channel in sales.
Germany has a highly developed tourism industry to receive and serve tourists. Among the various participants in the tourism market in Germany, there are 3 largest corporations: TUI Deutschland, REWE-Touristik and Tomas Cook, which have concentrated 70% of the tourist services market in their hands. For example, the tourism system «REWE» includes 1260 tourist offices. In addition to tourism, REWE is engaged in a different production and commercial activity; in total, this corporation employs two and a half thousand different enterprises. At the end of last year, REWE ranked third in the German tourism market, with an annual turnover of 60 billion euros. The principle of all German tourism corporations is to have their own airline, their own hotel system and transport. All this gives them the opportunity to concentrate their activities and provide customers with a full package of services.
There are 53 thousand accommodation facilities in the hotel sector of Germany, about 9.8 thousand travel agencies are engaged in organizing trips. Air traffic is provided by 16 international airports. The largest airlines are Lufthansa, Air Berlin, DBA (low-cost transportation). The system of autobahns is widely developed in the country, there are high-speed rail trains InterCityExpress.
The entire current tourist system of Germany has been established for several decades; is currently at a high modern level and continues to progress. According to UNWTO statistics, in recent years, Germany has firmly entered the top ten countries leading in receiving foreign tourists, and in terms of foreign exchange earnings in the industry, it ranks 6th in the world. The largest increase in tourist overnight stays is noted among tourists from the Netherlands, the USA, Great Britain and Switzerland. The number of tourist arrivals is increasing by an average of 6.1% per year. At the same time, it is impossible not to note the disproportions in the distribution of tourist traffic within the country – its lion’s share falls on the so-called “old lands” of Germany.
In 2008, the foreign tourist flow in Germany reached a record result, exceeding 56.5 million in arrivals. Although the number of international tourists decreased in the second half of 2008, Germany recorded an increase in arrivals every month except November, which provided tourism revenues of € 27.2 billion.
The German tourism industry has experienced a significant increase in Dutch arrivals (9.7 million overnight stays or 7.7% from 2007–2008), for which Germany is currently the most popular destination. The increase in the number of overnight stays of tourists from Denmark also amounted to 7.7%. The number of Russian tourists increased by 19.4%. As for the Ukrainians, in 2008 in Germany there were 146.6 thousand arrivals of our compatriots, and compared with 2007 this figure grew by 14.2%. At the same time, the number of tourists from some countries decreased (USA – 4.6%, Spain – 0.5%, Great Britain – 4.3%) as a result of the impact of the World Economic Crisis.
The most visited cities are Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf and Hamburg.
