Camping in particular is booming

For many, the pandemic seems to have been overcome after the end of the Corona requirements, and the desire to travel in Germany is back.

However, one group of customers still has some catching up to do. With the end of many Corona requirements, tourism in Germany is picking up speed again. In April, hotels, guesthouses and other accommodation establishments booked 35.7 million overnight stays by domestic and foreign guests, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Accordingly, that was more than four times as many overnight stays as in the same month last year and more than eight times as many as in April 2020 shortly after the start of the corona pandemic.

Despite the steep increase, the number of overnight stays was still a good eleven percent lower than in April 2019. “Overall, a positive trend can be seen in the number of overnight stays, since the gap to the pre-crisis level has narrowed since the beginning of 2022,” according to the statisticians. In March 2022, the deficit compared to March 2019 was just under 24 percent.

In April, almost 60 percent of overnight stays were in hotels, inns and guesthouses, around 22 percent in holiday accommodation and almost eight percent in campsites; the rest made up, for example, rehabilitation clinics or training homes. Compared to April of the pre-crisis year 2019, only overnight stays at campsites have now reached the pre-crisis level again, overnight stays in holiday accommodation remained just below.

Business travelers are holding back

Yesterday, the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga) reported an inconsistent development in the industry: “The gap between sales losers and sales winners is wide apart.” Businesses in holiday destinations and tourist-attractive cities reported good demand. “In contrast, business in companies that live from business travelers, company events and congresses is only slowly picking up again,” said Dehoga President Guido Zöllick.