(lifepr) Hannover, 11.03.2011 – It was a record year for the post-EXPO period: more tourists came to Hannover in 2010 than for many years past. Figures of more than 1.9 million overnight stays and over 1.1 million arrivals between January and December mean that more people visited Hannover than in any other year since the EXPO year 2000, when Lower Saxony’s capital chalked up some 2 million overnight stays.
„This is a great success for us,“ says Hans Christian Nolte, Director of Hannover Marketing and Tourism (HMTG). “Leaving the EXPO year aside, last year was an absolute record. Particularly given that we had to struggle with the volcanic ash problem during the HANNOVER MESSE in April, and that in general 2010 was a year with relatively few trade fairs, this is a sensational result.“
Altogether, 115,662 more overnight visitors were registered in Hannover in 2010 than in the previous year. But it is also noteworthy that the number of overnight stays is showing a long-term upward trend. In 1999, for example, Hannover recorded some 1.1 million overnight stays; 11 years later this figure had risen by no less than 800,000 – an increase of more than 70 per cent.
This upswing in tourism in Hannover also has a positive impact on the city’s economy: according to HMTG’s calculations, which are based on a study by dwif-Consulting, overnight visitors spent some €382 million in Hannover. Of this, 65 per cent (€248 million) was accounted for by the hotel and catering sector, 20 per cent (approx. €76 million) by the retail trade and 15 per cent (approx. €57 million) by services.
The increase in the number of overnight visitors is also reflected in the sales figures of the “experience packages” put together by HMTG for events such as the International Firework Competition or the Little Festival in the Great Garden. HMTG generated 5,717 overnight stays through the sale of these experience packages in 2010; the corresponding figure for 2009 was only 4,245.
One of the factors leading to the growth in the figures for overnight stays in 2010 was the enormous expansion in the number of foreign tourists visiting the city. There was a year-on-year increase of 17.5 per cent in the number of visitor arrivals from abroad, and of 8.9 per cent in the number of foreign visitors staying the night. Hannover is particularly popular with the British, who formed the largest contingent of foreign visitors in 2010, followed by the Dutch and the Swedes. But the number of German visitors increased too: overnight stays were up by 5.7 per cent year on year, and arrivals by 5.5 per cent. On average, visitors stayed in Hannover for 1.7 days.
„This success demonstrates the impact we are having with the marketing campaigns we launched in the Netherlands in the summer of 2009, including a joint campaign with the „9 Wonderful Cities“ association, and further expanded in 2010,“ says Nolte. „Hannover is a pleasantly green city that has lots to offer, with highlights such as the Herrenhausen Gardens, Germany’s most spectacular zoo, countless top-notch cultural events and plenty of opportunities for shopping,“ he went on, „and we have succeeded in putting this over, both across Germany and abroad.“
The major summer campaign “Gar nicht weit von hier” (“Really not so far away”) is likely to have been particularly effective; in the course of this campaign HMTG had a total of 1,000 billboard posters, showing motifs such as the atmospherically floodlit Opera House, Lake Steinhude, Marienburg Castle and the New Town Hall, on display at seaside resorts on the North Sea and Baltic coasts, and in the Harz region and the Ruhr.
Another factor apart from HMTG‘s advertising campaigns that contributed to the increase in the number of overnight visitors was the sharp expansion in the range of flights available to and from Hannover’s Langenhagen Airport in 2010. In particular, the fact that the „Germanwings“ airline started to operate out of Hannover in the spring of 2010 brought additional visitors to the city.
„A thing like that is a lucky break for tourism in Hannover,” Nolte says. In addition, the number of convention and trade fair visitors to Hannover has revived again after the recession.
The enormous rise in the number of overnight visitors in 2010 was not limited to the city, but was also shared by the other 20 towns and districts of Hannover Region. Whereas in 2009 there were 1,211,555 overnight stays in the municipalities of Hannover Region surrounding the state capital (but excluding the city itself), in 2010 this figure increased by no less than 19.6 per cent to 1,449,031.
Part of this dramatic rise is attributable to the marketing activities of HMTG, which actively promotes the Region by constantly featuring the „Region of horses and equestrianism“, the Deister Hills or Lake Steinhude in its advertising. But the overall increase of almost 20 per cent in the figures reported by the towns and districts of the Region is partly also due to a change in the basis on which the number of overnight stays is calculated by the State Office of Statistics. In 2010 overnight stays on camping sites were included in the statistics for the first time. „As there are some 15 camping sites in Hannover Region, but not a single one in the City of Hannover, the towns and districts surrounding the city have benefited particularly from the new method of calculation,“ says Nolte.
For 2011, Hannover Marketing and Tourism is planning a further expansion of its marketing activities abroad. A variety of measures to promote Hannover are to be pursued in Sweden, Belgium and Denmark, as well as in the Netherlands, where this has already been the case in previous years.
As this will coincide with heavy business in the field of trade fairs, HMTG Director Hans Christian Nolte is convinced that overnight stays will be up again in 2011. „We are expecting to be able to break the EXPO record this year,“ he declares.
Further information may be found at www.visit-hannover.com