European Cities Marketing presents the results of Tourism in Europe through its Benchmarking report 2014.
The report confirms the positive growth trend of the previous years by leading a robust European tourism industry in 2013. European Cities achieved an average relative change of 3.5% in total bednights and 5% in international bednights. Central and Eastern European cities led the forward charge with several exhibiting year-on-year total bednight growth rates above 10%.
London and Paris continue to lead Europe’s city tourism industry in terms of total bednights in 2013. Berlin, Rome, and Barcelona maintained their ranks among the top five cities with decidedly strong year-on-year bednight growth rates. The highest growth rate among the top 5 cities belongs to Berlin whose bednights increased by 8.2%.
Top 15 European city tourism destinations 2013 by bednight volumes
| Destination | Bednights 2013 | 2012-13 % change | |
| 1 | London | 53 696 680 | 3.3% |
| 2 | Paris | 36 679 245 | -0.6% |
| 3 | Berlin | 26 942 082 | 8.2% |
| 4 | Rome | 24 160 505 | 6.2% |
| 5 | Barcelona | 16 485 074 | 3.5% |
| 6 | Madrid | 14 873 643 | -4.3% |
| 7 | Prague | 14 654 282 | 1.5% |
| 8 | Istanbul | 14 597 845 | 4.8% |
| 9 | Vienna | 13 544 798 | 3.2% |
| 10 | Munich | 12 894 504 | 4.3% |
| 11 | Hamburg | 11 603 135 | 9.1% |
| 12 | Amsterdam | 11 262 000 | 6.6% |
| 13 | Stockholm | 10 956 922 | 2.3% |
| 14 | Milan | 9 922 368 | 8.3% |
| 15 | Dublin | 9 250 320 | -6.3% |
Source: European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report 2014.
Istanbul reversed the negative trend exhibited last year and managed to gain an impressive 4 places in the top rankings.
Top source markets and new stand-outs
Internationally-sourced bednight numbers continue to grow at a faster rate than those sourced domestically. Germany, the USA, and the UK once again topped the list of source markets by contributing a combined 75 million bednights to European cities. Spain and Italy maintained their status as top source markets but continued their negative growth trends exhibited in 2012. In comparison to its 14.8% growth in 2012, Japan showed a decrease of 5.8% in 2013. France maintained steady positive growth as a source market in 2013 while the Russian and Chinese markets continued to stand out with growth rates in the double digits. Since 2009, the latter two source markets have more than doubled their bednights contributed to European cities.
The report costs €990 with the full dataset of figures, and is free for members of European Cities Marketing. The report can be ordered from www.europeancitiesmarketing.com
