01 — Core market measures
Four numbers define the market. Each sits on its own official perimeter — do not blend them.
| Measure | 2025 value | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| International overnight trips | 105.0M −8.3% YoY | Resident leisure + business trips; Destatis, 17 Aug 2026 |
| Travel expenditure abroad | €118.515bn +2.7% YoY | Revised Bundesbank travel debit, all purposes, 13 Oct 2026 |
| Main-holiday cost per traveller | €1,636 +€92 YoY | 2025 main holidays; survey; includes domestic |
| International air departures | 68.5M +4.6% YoY | Apr–Oct 2025 boardings from German principal airports; all nationalities |
Source reconciliation. An earlier DRV/Bundesbank presentation cited €112.0bn for 2025. The Bundesbank's country-level table published on 13 October 2026 revises the all-country figure to €118.515bn. This dossier uses the latest official series consistently and does not mix publication vintages — the same discipline we apply to every perimeter conflict.
02 — Where German residents travel
The destination shares of 2025 foreign overnight trips — with implied trip counts as approximations, not a separately published headcount*:
| Destination | Share of trips | Implied trips* |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 12.4% | ≈13.0M |
| Austria | 11.1% | ≈11.7M |
| Spain | 10.9% | ≈11.4M |
| France | 8.3% | ≈8.7M |
| Netherlands | 7.7% | ≈8.1M |
A resident can travel more than once a year; Destatis includes overnight business journeys. Implied counts apply published rounded shares to the 105M total — treat them as scale, not census.
03 — Where the spending goes
Residents' international travel expenditure by destination, Bundesbank revised table of 13 October 2026. This is spending attributable to each destination economy — not air-ticket sales, not German tour-operator receipts.
| Destination | 2025 (€bn) | 2024 (€bn) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | 13.275 | 12.098 | +9.7% |
| Spain | 12.995 | 12.114 | +7.3% |
| Austria | 12.296 | 12.495 | −1.6% |
| France | 7.412 | 8.176 | −9.3% |
| Netherlands | 5.902 | 6.426 | −8.2% |
| Switzerland | 4.775 | 3.760 | +27.0% |
| Türkiye | 4.541 | 4.583 | −0.9% |
| Greece | 4.300 | 3.837 | +12.1% |
| United States | 4.333 | 5.369 | −19.3% |
Regional data carry greater statistical uncertainty, as the Bundesbank itself notes. The value lens rewards destinations the trip-count lens misses: Switzerland (+27%) and Greece (+12.1%) grew their German cheques faster than their German visitors — while France and the US lost spend faster than trips. Money moves before heads do.
04 — Air corridors and gateways
Destatis' summer-flight measurement covers April–October 2025 and counts outbound boardings from German principal airports, irrespective of nationality or residency. It is an aviation-corridor indicator — not the number of German tourists.
Spain 10.5M (+1.5%) · Türkiye 7.7M (+7.8%) · Italy 5.3M (+4.9%) · Greece 4.5M (+6.7%) · United States 4.5M (−1.4%) · Egypt 1.4M (+12.3%)
Frankfurt 63.2M — long-haul hub · Munich 43.4M — international hub · Berlin 26.0M — capital point-to-point · Düsseldorf 21.0M — western market · Hamburg 14.8M — northern market. Throughput includes foreigners and connecting traffic; it is not "German outbound".
Daily budgets complete the picture: the Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen survey puts the 2025 main-holiday budget at €130 per traveller per day — Greece €147, Spain €143, France €137, Italy €136, Austria €126, Türkiye €108. These are full-trip survey averages, not five-star ADR and not balance-of-payments spend.
05 — The 2026 pulse
Booking signals, not realized arrivals. The DRV's 15 October 2026 summer review covers organized package and modular products sold via agencies and online platforms, on TDA bookings to end-August:
Winter 2026/27 booked revenue at the DRV cut-off ran about 2% below the prior year: UAE and US demand particularly weak; Maldives, Thailand and the Dominican Republic relatively stable or ahead. DERTOUR's operator barometer adds the luxury texture — roughly one-third of its summer 2026 travellers booked five-star, nearly 60% all-inclusive* — an operator-booking sample, never a Germany-wide five-star share.
06 — What it means for luxury hospitality
Four operating rules for anyone selling to the German guest:
- Monitor value and visitors separately. Fewer trips did not mean weaker spending — track rate, length of stay, room category and ancillary spend, not just arrival totals.
- Watch connectivity as well as destination. 68.5M summer boardings with Mediterranean point-to-point growth against a −14% long-haul booking market is a network story as much as a demand story.
- Keep luxury evidence segment-specific. Operator five-star shares describe that operator's book, not the country.
- Run two tracks. Annual official flows (Destatis/Bundesbank) for structure; monthly booking and airline signals (DRV/TDA, OAG/Cirium) for timing. Country-to-resort conversion and in-destination five-star spend need partner data we do not pretend to have.
07 — The evidence ladder
Every figure in this dossier, on its own rung. The ladder is part of the product.
| Measure | Source | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 105M foreign trips | Destatis travel-demand survey, 17 Aug 2026 | Residents; ≥1 night; all purposes |
| €118.515bn spend | Bundesbank, 13 Oct 2026 | Balance-of-payments travel expenditure |
| €1,636 main-holiday cost | Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen, Feb 2026 | Survey; domestic + outbound holiday |
| 68.5M air boardings | Destatis air transport, 1 Dec 2025 | Departures by any nationality; summer |
| FRA/MUC/BER throughput | ADV, Munich Airport annual report 2025 | Arrival + departure throughput |
| 2026 revenue trends | DRV / TDA, 15 Oct 2026 | Organized sales only |
| Five-star / all-inclusive shares | DERTOUR travel barometer, summer 2026 | Operator-booking sample* |
Sources. Destatis — international overnight trips 2025, press release 17 Aug 2026 · Bundesbank — revised country travel-expenditure table, 13 Oct 2026 · Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen — travel-cost survey, Feb 2026 · Destatis — international air corridors Apr–Oct 2025, 1 Dec 2025 · Munich Airport / ADV — Annual Traffic Report 2025 · DRV — summer 2026 market review, 15 Oct 2026 · DERTOUR Group — travel barometer summer 2026. Cells marked * are approximations or operator samples, labelled in place; all other figures are published official data on the perimeters stated. Next issue in the series: France Outbound. Country file with both ledgers: Germany.