Berlin remains Germany top city break destination

Berlin, the host city to ITB, was not able to renew its 2024 tourism performance last year. 

In 2025, 12.4 million visitors traveled to Berlin and booked 29.4 million overnight stays. According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistical Office, visitor numbers declined by 2.7% compared with 2024, while overnight stays decreased by 3.8%.

Visitor and overnight figures have increased steadily since 2021. In 2024, they reached the highest level since the pandemic. Compared with 2023, however, 2.4% more visitors came to Berlin in 2025, while overnight stays fell slightly by 0.5%.

Despite this slight setback in numbers, Berlin remains one of Europe’s most popular city break destinations and the number 1 in Germany. In a press conference, Berlin’s Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey and visitBerlin’s managing directors Sabine Wendt and Burkhard Kieker highlighted the strong appeal of the German capital.

For Franziska Giffey, “with almost 30 million overnight stays and over 12 million guests, we can clearly state that Berlin’s appeal remains undiminished. Our city is internationally regarded as a place of longing and a world-class cultural metropolis. Berlin tourism is holding its own even in difficult times with changed travel and consumer behavior. The current figures show that we are maintaining roughly the same level as last year. This means that we are still one of the few cities worldwide to achieve such visitor numbers.”

United States ranked first, Asia strong again

A total of 7.9 million domestic visitors traveled to the capital and booked 17.3 million overnight stays (–2.7%). International overnight stays accounted for 41.1% of the total, down 5.4% from the previous year.

Visitors from other European countries totaled 3.2 million, generating 8.5 million overnight stays in Berlin. This represented 70.4% of all international overnight stays. Europe will remain central to Berlin tourism in the years to come, estimates Visit Berlin.

The largest number of overnight stays in 2025 was recorded by visitors from the United States, with 1.28 million (–2.2%), followed closely by the UK with 1.27 million overnight stays (–9.1%). The Netherlands ranked third with 0.8 million overnight stays (–15.5%). Double-digit declines were also recorded Italy, Norway or Austria.

In Europe, significant increases in overnights were however recorded for visitors from Bulgaria (+8.2%) and Luxembourg (+20.3%).

visitBerlin was also very positive about new and overseas markets gaining in importance. In 2025, guest numbers from Turkey (+8.5% overnight stays) and overseas from China (+14.4%), India (+10.0%), Israel (+9.5%) and Canada (+6.6%) developed particularly positively.

Asia is in fact showing again growth with +5.7% in visitors and +6.5% in overnights. This momentum shows that Berlin also has potential in future markets beyond the traditional source markets.

Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin: “Berlin is and remains a strong travel destination. Guests from China and India are increasingly coming to Berlin. Congress tourism is also growing. We are therefore optimistic about the future.“

Large hotels recorded the highest occupancy

Berlin’s hotel sector -including hotels, limited-service hotels, guesthouses, and inns, offered 59,236 beds and accounted for 24.3 million overnight stays, representing 82.5% of all overnight stays. Room occupancy in hotels with at least 25 rooms reached 73.5%, matching the previous year’s level.

At the end of 2025, Berlin had a total of 701 accommodation establishments with at least 10 beds and five campgrounds. The average bed occupancy rate was 55.5%, compared with 56.8% the year before. A dozen of new hotels are planned to open this year.

Strong momentum from major events and conferences

Berlin’s events and conference industry is an important driver of demand and international image. In 2025, the number of events rose by 5.6 per cent, while the number of participants increased by as much as 26.8 per cent (source: Visitor Insight).

Numerous high-profile events are already scheduled for 2026, including the German Cancer Congress, DMEA – Connecting Digital Health, the ESMO Breast Cancer Congress and the World Health Summit. In addition, there are leading international trade fairs such as ITB Berlin, ILA and InnoTrans, as well as technology and business formats such as IFA Berlin, SuperReturn International, WeAreDevelopers WorldCongress and GITEX Europe.

A focus on the future

visitBerlin is providing targeted impetus for the further development of tourism in Berlin in 2026. “We are strengthening Berlin’s visitor economy strategically, sustainably and digitally,” said Sabine Wendt, CEO of visitBerlin. “With events, neighborhood offers and data-based solutions, we are working together to shape tourism in a way that benefits guests and Berliners alike.”

With the “Berlin Paper” and the newly founded Berlin Event Board as an initiative for more major events, Berlin is expanding its position as a sustainable event location. BerlinPay is also creating its own adaptation of the Copenhagen model CopenPay, which rewards travelers for environmentally friendly behavior. Cooperation with Berlin’s twelve districts is also continuing: a neighborhood campaign will once again highlight local attractions in 2026 in order to better distribute visitor flows.

Berlin is using digital innovations to further develop data-based tourism, from the visitBerlin data hub with around 240,000 data records to the AI-supported chatbot Berlynn, to the Berlin Convention Finder with an AI search that leads to tailor-made providers in the conference and congress sector.

Looking ahead, visitBerlin is working with the industry on a model based on the “Sentient City” concept to improve the quality of the visitor experience through technology and establish tourism as a positive factor for urban development and human encounters.

“Our focus for 2026 is clear: with targeted investments and close cooperation, we will strengthen tourism as one of the city’s most important economic factors. At the same time, we will continue to work on improving Berlin’s international connections and attracting further major events to the city,” told Giffey.

visitBerlin at ITB Berlin: Hub27-304A

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