Berlin’s tourism industry is showing strong recovery post-pandemic, with over 6 million visitors in the first half of the year. Economic Senator Franziska Giffey is pleased but notes that continued growth is necessary to reach annual targets.
Tourism in Berlin is making a strong comeback, with 6.1 million people visiting the German capital in the first six months of the year, according to data released by the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office. This represents a 6.5% increase compared to the same period last year. The number of overnight stays also saw an increase of nearly 4%, totaling 14.4 million during this period.
International visitors contribute to the surge
More than a third of Berlin’s visitors—2.2 million people—came from abroad, marking a significant 13.4% increase in international tourists. Visit Berlin, the city’s tourism organization, attributed part of this growth to the UEFA European Football Championship held in June, which included the final and other key matches at the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
However, despite the increase in visitors, the number of overnight stays in June slightly decreased by 1.8% compared to the same month last year. The majority of international tourists hailed from the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands, with hotel occupancy rates averaging just under 54% in the first half of the year.
Ambitious goals for 2024
Economic Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD) expressed her satisfaction with the current trend, stating, “Berlin is on trend and continues to attract more and more visitors from around the world.” Earlier this year, Giffey set an ambitious target of 30 million overnight stays for 2024. Achieving this goal will require further growth in tourism in the second half of the year.
Despite the positive momentum, the city’s tourism figures are still significantly below the record year of 2019, when Berlin recorded more than 34 million overnight stays before the pandemic.
