European cities continued to attract growing numbers of tourists despite a troubled year in Europe: bednights up 4.2% in 2015

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(Vienna) European Cities Marketing has demonstrated the dominant and most dynamic aspect of European tourism: city tourism, which for years has continued to grow twice as fast as national tourism. Based on the preliminary results of the upcoming European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report, European cities maintained their strong growth trend, with total bednights up 4.2% in 2015. Bednights by international tourists grew at an even faster rate (+4.4%) than the figure for domestic visitors (+4.0%). The preliminary data is drawn from the results for 61 of 110 cities representing a total of 373.9 million bednights.

Top performing cities

London and Paris recorded about 100 million bednights between them, and continued to lead Europe’s city tourism industry in terms of total bednights in 2015. A 2.1% decline for Paris was attributable mainly to the terrorist attacks. Berlin managed to retain third place among the top five cities together with Rome, achieving a milestone of 30 million bednights. In the ongoing neck-and-neck duel for fifth place, after two years of ranking sixth, Madrid overtook Barcelona with strong growth of +8.7%. Of the top 10 European cities in terms of international bednights, above-average growth was achieved by Madrid (+12.8%), Berlin (+9.1%), Budapest (+6.9%), Prague (+7.0%), Vienna (+6.1%) and Rome (+4.7%).

Main source markets Germany, USA, UK – China still strongest growing market, Italy & Russia in decline

Germany, the USA, and the UK once again topped the list of source markets, representing 28% of bednights in European cities. China continued to be the strongest growing market (+32%), doubling its 2014 growth rate. After a promising recovery in 2014, bednights from Italy again fell by 5.3%. Bednights from Russia again decreased dramatically (-31%), though this was compensated for by positive growth in bednights from the UK (+8.1%) and the USA (+7.1%).

These results represent compelling evidence of the economic significance of contemporary urban tourism. Cities are therefore the dominant geographical focus of European tourism, especially the lucrative – and hence highly desirable – short break, congress and convention segments. Charts and further data are available free of charge at www.europeancitiesmarketing.com. The 12th edition of the European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report – the world’s leading source of European city tourism statistics – will be available in June 2016. The report can be pre-ordered with a 20% discount until the end of March.

About European Cities Marketing

European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation, promoting and linking the interests of members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries. Its mission is to improve the competitiveness and performance of the leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their networks to build new business.

Further information & pre-order special

www.europeancitiesmarketing.com/ecm-benchmarking-report

Enquiries

European Cities Marketing

Flavie Baudot

phone +33 380 56 02 00

e-mail: press@europeancitiesmarketing.com

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MODUL University Vienna (Scientific Partner)

Karl Wöber

phone +43 1 3203555-300

e-mail: karl.woeber@modul.ac.at