German tourists love Spain

BERLIN, Germany - Spain is still the destination where German tourists choose to spend their holidays, according to the German tourist magazine VWF which reported the number of German visitors in Spain in 2014 at 8.9 million, a 6.9% increase over the previous year.

German tourists made a total of 19.94 million trips by air last year, which represents a 5.4% increase for the year ending October 2014, according to estimates in the magazine based on statistics from the German Federal Statistics Office and TUI Germany.

In the case of Spanish destinations, the Balearic Islands showed solid growth of 3.3% with a total of 4.4 million visitors, while the Canary Islands experienced a 17% increase, reaching 2.9 million, thanks to the fall in Egypt’s winter market.

Demand declined sharply in this area due to the combination of political unrest and travel warnings, including the repatriation of many tourists from Sharm El Sheikh in February.

However, Egypt has recorded a clear recovery in recent weeks, with an increase in reservations pointing to a better winter season.

Turkey is in second place on the list in the magazine, increasing by 2.4% with 3.9 million tourists traveling by air from Germany. Italy grew by 5.9% to 2.3 million while other destinations such as Portugal and Croatia stagnated.

The greatest growth in the Eurozone was recorded in Greece where the number of German visitors increased by 19% over the same period in 2013 to more than 2 million tourists.

For other destinations, Israel (41%) showed a strong recovery this year due to improved security conditions, Tunisia (16%) recovered well and there was solid growth for Morocco (10%), Bulgaria (3.6%) and Malta (3.8%).

By contrast, Portugal and Croatia stagnated, and Cyprus recorded a 13% drop in the number of German tourists arriving by air, according to VWF figures.