WIESBADEN (dpa-AFX) - Hotels, inns and guesthouses in Germany have achieved record figures for overnight stays both in March and in the first quarter of the current year. In the first three months, accommodation establishments recorded 88.9 million overnight stays, 8.4 percent more than a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office on Monday. This exceeded the previous high of 86.9 million overnight stays in the first quarter of 2019, the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany.

With 35.6 million overnight stays by guests from Germany and abroad in March, the establishments also exceeded the previous high for the month from 2018 by 2.5 million. Compared to March 2023, the figures rose by 12.3%.

Both domestic and international demand increased significantly in both periods. In March, the number of overnight stays by domestic guests rose by 13.2% year-on-year to 30.1 million. According to the Wiesbaden statisticians, this increase is probably also due to the fact that this year the Easter vacations began in March in all federal states except Schleswig-Holstein.

The number of overnight stays by guests from abroad increased by 7.8 percent to 5.5 million in March. In the first quarter, establishments recorded an increase of 8.5 percent to 73.9 million overnight stays by domestic guests within a year. The number of guests from abroad rose by 7.8 percent to 15.0 million. The figures refer to accommodation establishments with at least ten beds or ten pitches for camping./ben/DP/zb