Berlin, 11. April 2011 After the successful start in January 2011 Berlin Tourism reports a further increase in the number of visitors in February. According to the Berlin Brandenburg Statistics Office, a total of 587,000 visitors travelled to the German capital during the second winter month of the year. This corresponds to an 8.1 percent growth versus the comparable prior year month. Room nights likewise recorded a 4.1 percent plus – guests from Germany and abroad spent a total of 1.2 million nights in Berlin.

“Even a cold February does not impair Berlin’s attractiveness. Despite wintery temperatures, the numbers of visitors have continued to increase”, says visitBerlin CEO Burkhard Kieker. “Growth would certainly have been even stronger without the air traffic tax.”

With 11.3 percent the growth rate for visitors from outside Germany remains in the double-digit range in February, too and was almost twice as high as for German guests (+ 6.3 percent). Among the 214,700 international guests, travellers from the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands were accounting for the highest share. Particularly strong growth rates were, however, reported for Russian (+ 49.8 percent) and Polish (+ 33.8 percent) guests. This underlines the significance of the Oder Partnership for the promotion of tourism, which visitBerlin entered into in March with Polish partners.

For Berlin visitors from all over the world 115,700 beds (+ 5.8 percent) were made available by a total of 750 accommodation providers (+ 3.9 percent) in February. Guests stayed on average for 2.1 days in the German capital.

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