Fewer guests from within the country. The weaker performance of hotels and other establishments in April may also be due to the timing of the Easter holidays.
Hotels and other accommodation providers have seen weaker business in April following the early start of the Easter holidays this year. The number of overnight stays by domestic and foreign guests fell by 7.4 percent to 37.1 million compared to the same month last year, according to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office. This decline is likely to be related to the early start of the Easter holidays this year, it said.
This year, the holidays began in March, except in Schleswig-Holstein. Many families in Germany started their Easter holidays this month instead of April, it was said. There was a significant decrease of 8.9 percent in overnight stays by domestic travellers in April, but a slight increase of 0.4 percent for foreign guests. In March, the accommodation providers reportedly recorded a record number of overnight stays for this month. In March and April combined, the figures were 1.2 percent higher than in the same period last year.
In the first four months, accommodation establishments recorded a total of 125.8 million overnight stays. This was an increase of 3.1 percent compared to the same period last year. The number of overnight stays by domestic guests rose by 2.6 percent to 104.5 million. For travelers from abroad, an increase of 5.5 percent to 21.3 million was recorded. The figures refer to accommodation establishments with at least ten beds or ten pitches for camping.
Source: Stern
