Press release: Positive Outlook for Inbound Tourism

Frankfurt am Main, 11 December 2025 – Trend reversal in German inbound tourism: After a fluctuating year so far, demand from international guests rose significantly in October. Based on the latest market data available, the German National Tourist Board (DZT) expects inbound tourism to continue to pick up in the coming months.

The number of overnight stays by foreign visitors in October 2025 rose by 4.1 per cent to 7.3 million compared with the same month last year. Cumulatively, the year-on-year decline of 2.9 per cent at the end of the third quarter melted away to 2.3 per cent by the end of October, according to preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office on overnight stays by foreign guests in German hotels and guesthouses with at least ten beds.

Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the German National Tourist Board, explains:

"In the first few months of this year, trade conflicts and geostrategic disputes unsettled consumers in many source markets. This was compounded by a decline in business travel and the continued strength of the euro against the US dollar, which made travel to Europe particularly expensive for important overseas markets. In a direct comparison with the previous year, the special effect of the UEFA Euro and major concert events in the summer of 2024 was also noticeable. Nevertheless, the willingness to travel remains high. In the European Travel Commission's (ETC) latest Monitoring Sentiment for Intra-European Travel, 73 per cent of Europeans plan to travel between October 2025 and March 2026 – a stable figure compared to the previous year. In selected overseas markets, too, the ETC Long-Haul Travel Barometer shows largely stable travel intentions for the last months of the year. Germany scores particularly well in this market environment in the run-up to Christmas: according to the latest DZT Travel Industry Expert Panel for the fourth quarter of 2025, 88 per cent of the CEOs and key accounts surveyed see Germany as a strong destination for Christmas markets, and 78 per cent actively market Christmas markets in their product portfolio for trips to Germany.“

Hotel data from MKG Consulting confirms the upward trend. At 75.2 per cent, the average occupancy rate across all categories in October was almost three percentage points higher than the previous year's level. Despite increasingly fierce international competition, average prices also rose again for the first time, reaching €126, which is 10.1 percentage points above the previous year's figures.

For October 2025, data from Forward Keys also shows an 8.2 per cent increase in international flight arrivals in Germany compared to the previous year. For the next six months, advance flight bookings are already above last year's level, particularly from overseas markets such as the USA, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.