Germany

Why should you target this market? 

Huge potential: Germany is the second largest outbound tourism market in the world, with German residents normally making more than 60 Million trips abroad every year, mainly within Europe.  Over 55% of the travellers stay longer than 5 nights. For their main holiday, Germans plan on average 13 nights. So, the market presents huge potential. In fact, Germany is the third largest inbound tourism market for the island of Ireland and is our largest source market from continental Europe.   

High spenders: Visitors from Germany stay longer and spend more than the average visitor: they spend €625/£541 per person while here, staying nine nights on average in Ireland. Favouring hostels and B&Bs as well as hotels, Germans account for more than six million paid bed-nights in Ireland every year and almost half use a car to travel around the island. German visitors are comfortable speaking and being addressed in English. 

Resilient market: Over the years, the German visitor to Ireland has proven resilient in times of tourism downturns and travel tends to recover quickly with an economic upswing or lifting of other barriers to travel.  More than half of all German holidaymakers to the island of Ireland are under 35 years old and a third have been here before. Tourism Ireland’s latest research forecasts that the German market will play an important part of recovery post Covid 19, and a younger demographic alongside repeat visitors are showing the strongest interest in travelling. 

Good Target: Exploring our history and culture along with walking and hiking are the most popular activities for our German visitors. Ireland’s wide range of outdoor activities and opportunities to connect with nature are likely to be even more appealing to German visitors from now on. 

How to work in the German market 

Trade: Chris Ruebel, Denise Quinn and Viktoria Albrecht in our Trade Team maintain constant contact with our German Tour Operators and Travel Agents, supporting them with the latest updates from Ireland and closely monitoring developments in the market.  We continue actively to explore new opportunities and platforms for our Island of Ireland Industry partners to meet German trade in tailored in person meetings, shows, events, famtrips or e-learnings and webinars. 

Consumer: We are very active in our publicity and consumer advertising with strong integrated campaigns in TV, digital, Radio and OOH channels combined with co-op marketing or partnerships with operators and travel agency chains or OTAs. Your offers will form a central part of these campaigns. Until then, our Consumer Team is keeping the destination very much top of mind with German consumers through our so called “warm channels”. We share inspiring content daily with over 394k fans and followers on our social media and our ezine is sent biweekly to over 68k potential visitors. Why not join us on our Facebook, Instagram , Twitter, Pinterest and Tiktok pages to get an insight into what inspires the German visitor? You can also get involved in Tourism Ireland’s #IrlandLässtDeinHerzHöherSchlagen“ campaigns where we share inspirational photos and video content from Ireland with our communities in each market. 

Publicity: Our Publicity Team achieves exceptional levels of editorial coverage for the Ireland destination across a wide range of German media both Print, Online, TV and Radio. Our journalist and Influencer contacts are essential to keep Ireland top of mind, so the team continues to engage with them in a proactive manner and your stories can feature in the press bulletins and story ideas we send out regularly to these important contacts. 

Upcoming Activity  

Please check the site on a regular basis, to find out what’s on offer and how you can be involved throughout the year. You can also register for email alerts for the latest information and upcoming opportunities. If you have any questions, drop us a line – we're here to help.