{"id":64227,"date":"2026-04-19T19:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/64227\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:16:19","slug":"is-berlin-tourism-on-the-ropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/64227\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Berlin Tourism on the Ropes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"Image credit: Csaba Klement<\/p>\n

The sun is making its return to Berlin, and with it, Berliners are returning to their natural habitat: beers on Tempelhofer Feld, coffees along the Landwehrkanal and falafels at Boxhagener Platz. As spring approaches, tourists are sure to follow. Or are they?<\/p>\n

According to the numbers, Berlin is struggling to attract tourists. In 2025, the city experienced a downturn of 3.8% in overnight stays compared to the previous year. That might not sound too bad, but it\u2019s symptomatic of a bigger fact: Berlin\u2019s tourism industry never fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the city\u2019s economic pillars, contributing roughly \u20ac15.1 billion in consumption and supporting over 224,800 jobs, any decline in tourism is a problem. In 2019, Berlin welcomed 14 million visitors. Five years later, Berlin had 12.7 million visitors. Meanwhile, cities such as Copenhagen, Athens and Madrid have exceeded their pre-pandemic tourism levels. So what\u2019s up with Berlin?<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: IMAGO \/ Olaf Schuelke<\/p>\n

A Connectivity Problem<\/p>\n

For decades, Berlin\u2019s brand was the capital of counterculture. The city promised liberty: sexual, creative or the liberty to reinvent itself. From opera to techno, it boasted an abundance of culture, with subsidies that kept that culture affordable. Low rents allowed artists, musicians and misfits to live here and create an energy that made Berlin \u201cpoor but sexy\u201d, as Mayor Klaus Wowereit famously coined the city in 2003.<\/p>\n

That formula thrived: fly cheap via budget airlines like EasyJet, book cheap accommodation, enjoy cheap beer and indulge in the city\u2019s cheap and infinite nightlife. But as investment poured in, turning Berlin into Germany\u2019s startup hub, it began driving out the very communities that shaped an alternative, ultra-cool safe haven. Flight costs have soared, with the \u20ac9.99 Ryanair and EasyJet flights feeling like an ancient relic. Now, BER Airport only runs at about half its capacity.<\/p>\n

Christian T\u00e4nzler, spokesperson for VisitBerlin, is blunt about the core problem. \u201cInternational guests aren\u2019t coming to Berlin because we have a connectivity problem,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore Covid, Berlin had two airports. Now it has one that performed at 40% below the 2019 performance for a long time.\u201d Yet the issue runs deeper than infrastructure. \u201cWe have hardly any international, direct, long-haul flights,\u201d T\u00e4nzler explains. \u201cYou always have to transfer. That\u2019s an Achilles\u2019 heel, especially for a location that lives very strongly from the MICE [market meetings, incentives, conferences and events].\u201d The political dimension is stark. \u201cTo West Germany, there are 200 long-haul direct connections; to East Germany, there are four, and they\u2019re all in Berlin.\u201d T\u00e4nzler even suggests that Lufthansa and politicians from Frankfurt and Munich actively protect their hubs at Berlin\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: IMAGO \/ photothek<\/p>\n

An Identity Crisis<\/p>\n

Berlin is no longer the cheap oasis it once was. Martin Wollberg, who runs Berlin on Bike and has led tours since 2004, recently returned from a European cities trip with an uncomfortable observation. \u201cYou pay something like \u20ac15 per meal in Paris, almost less than you pay in Berlin.\u201d Even the vibe has changed. Walking home from his headquarters in the Kulturbrauerei, Wollberg noticed empty restaurants at 10pm. \u201cIf I would be just a visitor for two nights, I would think that maybe the place is not that popular. In Paris and Lisbon, the streets were packed, even in 10-degree weather.\u201d Travelling through Europe, Wollberg noticed cities illuminating their buildings and bridges, creating vibrant evening atmospheres. \u201cThis is what I\u2019m missing in Berlin,\u201d he says. He also noticed that hubs like BER and Berlin Hauptbahnhof lack helpful staff at arrival points, which other cities provide.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s capital always had \u201cbottom-up energy\u201d, Wollberg explains, an organic creativity that emerged after the fall of the Wall, built on friends visiting friends rather than official marketing. Emiko Gejic from Clubcommission Berlin saw a similar trend. \u201cMost of the clubs that are still standing now, opened a long time ago. During the 90s, it was easy to just use an old building, transform it and experiment. It was growing very organically. If you now want to open a club or any space, it\u2019s very cost intensive. There are a lot of regulations; it\u2019s very bureaucratic.\u201d Gejic issues a warning that \u201cif the scene is dying or disappearing, Berlin will lose its main USP.\u201d She noticed that \u201cBerlin is becoming more and more of a standardised German city that is affordable only to certain income groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: IMAGO \/ imagebroker<\/p>\n

Leon, who worked in hospitality for years and lived in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and now lives in Neuk\u00f6lln, has watched that transformation first-hand.\u00a0 \u201cEverything is getting more expensive. The hot spot areas are getting more expensive. The rents are rising, so small businesses have to move out, and I think it\u2019s an ongoing mechanism of the city slowly losing itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00e4nzler\u2019s thoughts on the \u201cpoor but sexy\u201d era of Berlin are clear. \u201cThat\u2019s been over for 10 years.\u201d The new narrative? \u201cWe used to be poor but sexy. Now we\u2019re just sexy \u2013 free and sexy.\u201d<\/p>\n

VisitBerlin is pursuing what T\u00e4nzler calls \u201cquality tourism\u201d, meaning wealthier visitors who engage with the city\u2019s culture, not cheap-beer seekers. \u201cWe\u2019re no longer the cheap metropolis we used to be, and honestly we don\u2019t want to be,\u201d he says, citing Prague as a cautionary tale of beer-price tourism leading to overcrowding.<\/p>\n

But can Berlin compete on quality without the organic creative energy that originally attracted visitors? On club culture, T\u00e4nzler is optimistic. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it club death, but transformation. The club scene is always a scene of change,\u201d he says, pointing to Berghain as an example of diversifying into exhibitions and workshops as clubgoers age and behaviours shift.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: IMAGO \/ imagebroker<\/p>\n

A Marketing Disconnect<\/p>\n

Yet the gap between image and reality persists. \u201cThe marketing around tourism for Berlin uses the narrative of being a free, creative city where you can be yourself and grow something new,\u201d Gejic notes. \u201cThat used to be the case but has changed massively.\u201d This raises an uncomfortable question: should Berlin even try to recover its 2019 tourism levels? Cities like Barcelona are now protesting that tourism dependency has destroyed liveability through overcrowding and housing crises.<\/p>\n

Leon thinks a slowdown might help. \u201cIf it would slow down a little, that would be good for the city \u2013 for people who just moved here to get into the tempo of a city growing. Dependency on tourism shouldn\u2019t be something you strive for.\u201d T\u00e4nzler frames VisitBerlin\u2019s goal differently: not as a specific visitor number, but a desire for Stadtvertr\u00e4glich (city-compatible) in tourism. \u201cTourism can only function in harmony between guests and residents,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: IMAGO \/ imagebroker<\/p>\n

Free and Sexy?<\/p>\n

When asked to update Wowereit\u2019s slogan for 2025, Gejic offers \u201cchallenging, but resilient\u201d. The creative scene will always find new ways, she believes. \u201cPeople fight for the city; the art and culture scene fights for the city.\u201d But without addressing fundamentals \u2013 airport connectivity, affordable housing, support for experimental culture \u2013 Berlin risks becoming what it never wanted to be: just another expensive European capital. The question is whether \u2018free and sexy\u2019 can replace \u2018poor but sexy\u2019. Or if, by betraying the countercultural energy that made tourists want to visit in the first place, Berlin has lost its sex appeal entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image credit: Csaba Klement The sun is making its return to Berlin, and with it, Berliners are returning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[17918,112,4691,190,35231,1411,35232],"class_list":["post-64227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-ber","tag-berlin","tag-economics","tag-germany","tag-pandemic","tag-tourism","tag-tourists"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116432980460777327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}