European City tourism grew overall by around 5.9 % last year with international bed nights increasing by a staggering 8% – despite the gloomy economic backdrop. The results were presented at the European Cities Marketing BRIC conference in Zagreb this month during the launch of the 8th Edition of the ECM Benchmarking Report .
The report, prepared by MODUL University in Vienna, showed that London, Paris, and Berlin remain the three most popular European cities for tourists recording annual total bednight levels in excess of 20 million for the year 2011. Barcelona and Prague, on the other hand, achieved the highest year-on growth rates, running at an impressive 11% and 9% respectively.
The US continues to be the single most important source market, followed by Germany, the UK and Italy. Russia and China showed the highest year-on growth rates with a remarkable 36% and 30% respectively.
| Total bednights | |||
| Destination | Bednights 2011 | 10-11 % chance | |
| 1 | *London | 45,953,317 | -5.7% |
| 2 | *Paris | 36,877,033 | 3.0% |
| 3 | Berlin | 22,359,470 | 7.5% |
| 4 | *Rome | 22,021,993 | 8.0% |
| 5 | *Madrid | 16,366,927 | 7.7% |
| 6 | *Barcelona | 15,529,218 | 10.5% |
| 7 | *St. Petersburg | 14,715,344 | 7.7% |
| 8 | Prague | 13,214,304 | 9.3% |
| 9 | *Vienna | 12,246,204 | 4.9% |
| 10 | *Munich | 11,738,112 | 5.8% |
| 11 | *Dublin | 10,654,200 | 2.3% |
| 12 | Istanbul | 9,875,333 | -1.8% |
| 13 | *Amsterdam | 9,747,900 | 0.2% |
| 14 | Hamburg | 9,556,287 | 7.7% |
| 15 | *Milan | 8,136,663 | 1.0% |
Source: European Cities Marketing
European cities tourism performed better than tourism at the national level
Comparing tourism at the national level with tourism in European cities, for the period 2007 to 2011, European cities tourism performed on average better than tourism at the national level. Among the European cities, international bednights increased on average by 1.9% in the period, whilst in the 27 EU nations total bednights decreased on average by -0.4%. Also compared to the Euro-area GDP and the OECD GDP growth for 2011, development in European City tourism is by far outgrowing GDP growth. This demonstrates that City tourism has taken over as the main growth driver of tourism in Europe.
The President of European Cities Marketing, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, said today:
“Overall performance in 2011 lends weight to the view that city tourism is the dominant and most dynamic aspect of European tourism. With respect to the key bednights indicator, we can see that last year many cities recorded all-time highs and impressive growth rates. BRIC countries, especially Russia and China, are emerging as important source markets with lots of potential for the future”.
