Significant changes have been observed in the way German people book their holidays. Instead of taking faraway trips to exotic locations, shorter trips by bus are said to be more and more popular. In terms of holiday reservations, online booking has never been as popular as it was last year. Indeed, 33% of Germans who ventured abroad last year avoided the high street travel agents and logged on to the net instead.
Despite a strong growth in internet usage to arrange holidays, the number of outbound tourists was down by 2%. Only Spain enjoyed an increase in the number of German visitors received. Out of the other favourite destinations for German people - namely Austria, Turkey, Italy and France - all reported dramatic decreases in German tourists. This could, of course, be blamed on the 2006 World Cup, which tempted many football fans to stay at home to enjoy the football feast.
It has been generally agreed that Germany’s hosting of the World Cup was a huge success, not only for football, but also for the country’s image as a tourist destination. Inbound tourism reached levels it had never reached before. There was a 110% increase in Portuguese visitors, 256% increase in Brazilians and an astonishing 405% increase in the amount of people from the Caribbean.
