Felicity Long
During the pandemic, tourism boards across Europe had no choice but to pause and hit reset. Right up to the moment the world shut down, the biggest challenge for inbound travel entities had been overtourism.
Throngs of international visitors, especially in cities like Paris, Dubrovnik and Venice, threatened the very charm that attracts tourists to Europe in the first place — and upended the lives of locals in the process.
What, then, would post-pandemic travel look like, we all wondered. One popular theory was that tourists would avoid congested spaces in favor of uncrowded locales that they may not have considered before — the mountains of Switzerland, the fjords of Norway, the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland and so on.
As a theory, it made sense — avoiding breathing in each other's faces is a whole lot easier when, say, tramping across a Scottish moor than when standing in line to see the "Mona Lisa" at the Louvre.
But, as we learned during the so-called revenge travel boom that surprised most of us post-pandemic, some trends are harder to predict than others.
As pent-up demand to see Europe seems to be cooling, it's interesting to see some of the numbers and — because we can't help ourselves — take a stab at predicting what's next.
City over countryside?
In Germany, for example, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) is anticipating that city tourism will present the greatest potential for the continued recovery of German inbound tourism in 2024.
"Notably, interest in city trips remains robust, cultural and roundtrips are on an upward trajectory, while demand for sun and beach and coast and sea experiences is showing a slight decline," said Petra Hedorfer, chairwoman of the GNTB executive board.
"In alignment with these trends, our global theme campaigns for 2024 will center around Germany as a land of art and culture and Unesco World Heritage Sites, with a focus on commemorating the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich's birth, the 35th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the host cities of the European Football Championship and Chemnitz as the European Capital of Culture of 2025," Hedorfer said.
The largest source markets for German inbound tourism also generate above-average contributions to city tourism, she said, with 3.4 million overnight stays in the Magic Cities --Cologne, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Stuttgart — along with Berlin, the U.S. is the strongest source market for city tourism, followed by the U.K. and the Netherlands.
To capitalize on this trend, the GNTB campaign "Cultureland Germany 2024" is marketing its cities by theme — such as Design.Culture.Travel, History.Culture.Travel, Wine.Culture.Travel and Music.Culture.Travel — to help match visitors to their areas of interest.
Of course, the continued robust interest travelers have in European cities doesn't mean all the predictions about the appeal of the great outdoors were entirely off base.
According to an analysis of the World Travel Monitor by IPK International 2023 on behalf of the GNTB in 27 countries, 93% of travelers to Germany are interested in combining a city trip with city/countryside. Specifically, 34% would focus on the city, 21% on nature and 37% on city and nature in equal measure.
With that in mind, the GNTB is touting its "Stay a Little Bit Longer" initiative, designed to promote the extension of international guests' stays in Germany by combining city trips with a stay in the surrounding area.
The idea is to not only strengthen tourism in rural regions, but to promote environmentally friendly travel.