GERMANY

GERMANY

Capital city Berlin continues to occupy the top spot for city breaks to Germany, but less well known cities are catching up.

Berlin continues to top the charts as the most visited city in Germany, but the appeal of a city break has spread from its well trodden streets as operators report fresh tracks being made towards many other German cities.

Munich in particular has witnessed a dramatic rise in visitor numbers thanks to its museums, boulevards and compact layout, and operators say the south German city almost rivals Berlin’s popularity.

Thomas Cook Holidays introduced Munich to its Cities with Style brochure this year after market research predicted increasing interest in the city and the operator now rates it as the most popular new destination in its programme.

Not confined to the larger, better known cities, the marketplace is expanding to include new short-break destinations including Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Dresden.

Kirker Holidays features Dresden, home of the Semper Opera House, which offers world-class productions at a fraction of the cost of venues elsewhere in Europe. Tickets typically cost around £25, as opposed to £75 in London.

The operator can arrange opera reservations and has found the city selling well when combined with a twin-centre holiday with Prague, just three hours away by train.

Germany’s arrival figures for the first six months of the year were up 11% on last year and the tourist office is targeting three million overnight stays this year if the trend continues. The city-break market represents about 30% of this figure, around 900,000 visitors.

Travelscene commercial manager Paul Stanley said the strength of sterling has helped counter the perception that Germany is expensive.

“The dip in value of the mark, brought about by the weakness of the euro, and the continuing publicity about this must have helped to stimulate more interest in the country’s cities,” he said.

Travelscene’s Cities brochure features Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Berlin and Hamburg, all of which now have a dedicated page each following increased demand and overall growth of 47% last year. Three of the five featured cities are showing growth, with Hamburg registering the strongest increase in bookings of 26%, probably due to EXPO 2000 in nearby Hanover. The operator’s top two German cities – Munich and Berlin – also show an increase on top of last year’s record growth at 7% and 4% respectively.

Cresta cities brand manager Ian Ackland said Berlin continues to outsell other German cities but the company has seen bookings up by 23% to Cologne and 20% to Dusseldorf.

“We are keeping our eye on a couple of German destinations for next year as it is a market we are looking to expand,” he said.

The German Travel Centre has seen its passenger numbers increase from 48,000 to 62,000 and with the city-break market representing around 30% of its total business this accounts for some 18,500 city visitors.

Not all operators are reporting an increase in German city-break business, however.

Premier Holidays short-breaks contract manager Andrew Hillyard said it was “touch and go” whether the operator will continue to feature Munich and Berlin in future, due to poor sales.

Old-world charm: operators are featuring smaller cities like Heidelberg in short-break programmes as an alternative to popular destinations like Berlin