Travel bug

Wanderlust is alive and well, Klaus Laepple President of the German Travel Association (DRV) assured delegates attending the annual conference in Egypt.

He said that "almost as many Germans had been on organized holidays (in 2009) as in the previous year," and that the industry had only suffered a three to four percent loss as compared to 2008. He attributed this slight drop into sales volume to lower prices brought about by the global economic slump.

But it is not only organized foreign vacations that are thriving, short trips, tailor-made sejourns on home turf are also popular with the German public.

So why, when other traditionally travel-happy nations are being forced to trade their two weeks in the sun for day trips closer to home, are Germans still gaily trotting the globe as if nothing were amiss?

Setting priorities

Part of the answer is money. Although Germans have also been hit by the financial crisis, their general antipathy towards overspending means they have more money stashed under their mattresses to pay for things they really want.

And what many really want, according to DRV spokeswoman Sybille Zeuch, is a holiday.

"The average worker gets six weeks of leave per year," she told Deutsche Welle. "And they want to use it to travel."

Zeuch says the chance to get away from it all is one thing that very few Germans are willing to do without.

"They want to leave the challenges of the daily grind behind them, to experience new things and to gain new impressions from overseas," she said.

Klaus Braehmig of the government committee on tourism says it is this impulse to expand their horizons by exploring new landscapes and cultures that keeps Germans on the move - come hell, high water or financial recession.

"They are open to the world which means they are curious about other people and their habits and customs," he said.

Following the literary leader

That interest dates back several hundred years. Braehmig cites Goethe's travel writing as a major source of inspiration for the German travel bug in that the renowned writer "made travel socially acceptable."

"And in so doing, he did his bit for European dialog," he added.

That dialog faltered twice along the way, with devastating consequences for the continent and a virtual eradication of the European tourism industry. But then came the post-war years and the new-found freedoms helped out by Germany's 1950s-era economic miracle.

Add to that the fact that for 40 years citizens of East Germany were denied access to much of the world and it is not hard to understand why Germans appear to be on a mission to explore as much of the globe as they can.

"There are very few places Germans have not been to," Zeuch said, conceding that going to far-flung destinations is on a par in status terms with a sparkling Mercedes in the driveway.

"Of course people like to say they've been to Dubai or to Vietnam or on a safari," the DRV spokeswoman said. "Those are not experiences which everyone has."

Autor: Tamsin Walker

Editor: Kyle James