Germany posts gains out of Canada

Destination Germany reports that business is good these days, with overnight stays by international visitors increasing by over 10% in the first quarter of 2012. In total, Germany recorded close to 12.3 million overnight stays by international visitors during the January to March period. “Destination Germany is on an extremely consistent growth trajectory,” declared Ernst Burgbacher, Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism. “In the first quarter of 2012, we were already well ahead of our forecasts for the year as a whole”, added Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). Canada too reported positive results for the first three months of the year with overnights climbing by 1.4% compared to the same period last year, reported Bernd Haessler, acting regional manager of the Americas for the German National Tourist Office (GNTO). Said Haessler: “We are especially thrilled with these seemingly modest results as they come on top of the extraordinary 16% of last year for this same time period.” In 2011, visitors from abroad generated almost a third of spending by overnight visitors. In fact, a recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) revealed that visitors from abroad are not only generating a steady rise in the number of overnight stays in Germany, they also contribute a substantial proportion of total revenue from tourism.