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Germany

See the latest market data for Germany – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Germany

Travellers from Germany made 99.6 million outbound visits in 2022, with a total international tourism expenditure of US$89.7 billion.

In 2022, the UK welcomed 2.2 million visits from Germany. During the travellers’ visits, their total expenditure was £1.4 billion, with an average spend of £623 per person.

Discover visitor behaviour, travel trade insights, detailed data visualisations for this market – and more. The statistics in this market report are collated from a range of sources such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as sponsored questions and our own research. For further details, see How we source this information.

Visitor characteristics

  • Business visitors from Germany are more than three times as likely to be male than female.
  • More than three-in-five holiday visitors are making a repeat visit to Britain (excluding British expats, within ten years).
  • Virtually all holiday and business visitors are German nationals, but 21% of visiting friends and relatives (VFR) visitors are British nationals.
  • 96% of departing Germans are either ‘likely’ or ‘extremely’ likely to recommend a visit to Britain.

Explore the inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see data from this market in greater depth and clarity. Compare annual statistics, and filter by age group, gender, trip duration and more. It includes seasonality, trip purpose and regional spread of visitors to UK destinations. These data are based on the International Passenger Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Perceptions of Britain in the German market

  • Germans rate the UK highly for contemporary culture, culture in general, sports, vibrant cities, historic buildings and cultural heritage, but less so for scenic natural beauty and welcome. They rated the UK 37th out of 60 nations on each of these two attributes in 2023.
  • Music, museums and films are the cultural products or services most strongly associated with the UK among Germans (2022).
  • A trip to the UK would be expected to be ‘exciting’, ‘educational’, and ‘fascinating’.
  • Australia, and to a lesser extent the USA, are the destinations that Germans consider the ‘best place’ for delivering the things they most want from a holiday destination.
  • Areas of strength for Britain include being somewhere to see ‘famous sites’ and for ‘lots of history’, while very few consider Britain is the ‘best place’ for ‘food and drink’.
  • Activities that appeal to potential visitors from Germany include ‘driving through the countryside in England’, ‘visiting Madame Tussauds’, ‘spotting wildlife in the Scottish Highlands’, ‘sharing stories over a pint with locals in a cosy rural pub’ and ‘going hiking on the South West coast’.

Global context

Top-level statistics relating to the population, GDP, tourism expenditure and popular destinations for this market. For greater detail on inbound tourism flows from this market to the UK, see our data visualisations.

Measure

2022

International tourism expenditure (US$bn)

89.7

Global rank for international tourism expenditure

3

Number of outbound overnight visits (m)

99.6

Most visited destination

France

Key demographic and economic data

Measure

2022

Population (m)

83.5

GDP per capita PPP (US$)

63,753

Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)

1.1

Annual GDP growth (%)

1.9

Caring for visitors

  • Very few German visitors expect their British hosts to speak German. The majority of younger Germans speak English.
  • German visitors are likely to have planned their itinerary in detail, but younger visitors may be more spontaneous. However, all welcome local recommendations for things to do and see.
  • Germans often try to find accommodation that has ‘character’.
  • German vegetarians are often impressed by the range of choices on offer in Britain.

The leisure and travel trade

  • The German travel market is very mature. There are a few big players dominating the market, but also a fair number of small specialist operators with comprehensive Britain programmes.
  • In Germany, retail agencies are more important than in other European countries, but they are increasingly facing competition from online travel portals.
  • Large tour operators research their main season programmes between April and June, with off-season and city break operators doing their research in March and April.

Access to Britain from Germany

The key routes and transport modes that connect this market with the UK.

Measure

2023

Weekly aircraft departures 

845

Weekly seat capacity

134,120

Airports with direct routes in Germany

18

Airports with direct routes in Britain

17

  • Most Germans travel to Britain by plane. It can also be accessed by direct coach services, by car through the Channel Tunnel, by ferry, or by a simple change of train in Brussels or Paris.
  • In 2023 there are 845 weekly departures, with an average seat capacity of 134,120.
  • 18 German airports have access to 17 British airports.
  • Following the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled seat capacity on non-stop flights from Germany to the UK has recovered to 75% of 2019 levels in 2023.
  • German visitors flying home from Britain pay £13 in Air Passenger Duty.

Further resources

PDF

Germany Market Snapshot

Germany Market Snapshot

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PDF

Germany Market Profile

Direct transport links and sustainability are particularly important to German bookers.

Download (3.2 MB)
PDF

Germany Aviation Profile

Germany Aviation Profile

Download (891.31 KB)
PDF

Germany COVID-19 Travel Sentiment

Germany COVID-19 Travel Sentiment

Download (488.39 KB)

Where visitors from Germany to the UK reside in their own country.xlsx

Where visitors from Germany to the UK reside in their own country

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PDF

Perceived barriers to exploring Britain beyond London for Germans

Perceived barriers to exploring Britain beyond London for Germans

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PDF

The role of culture and heritage for German visitors

The role of culture and heritage for German visitors

Download (2.37 MB)

How we source this information

We work with a number of data sources to provide a rich and insightful picture of our key inbound source markets. This includes, but is not limited to, data provided by Oxford Economics, the UNWTO, Apex, Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and from our own surveys and ad-hoc research. The largest share of these data comes from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) by the ONS.

Visit our About the International Passenger Survey page for more information on how this data is collected and analysed.

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