GermanyGermany

Overview of the country

Terrain: The total area is 357,021 km2, where the terrain is relatively flat. It is the seventh largest country by area in Europe and the 62nd largest in the world. Within we find the famous rivers the Danube, the Elbe and the Rhine. The central rolling hills in the south is the Alps. Glaciers are found in the Alpine region, but are experiencing deglaciation.

Borders: Germany borders with Denmark on the north; with Poland and Czech Rep. on the east; Austria and Switzeland on the south; France and Luxemburg in the south-west; and Belgium and Netherland on the north-west.

Population: Commonly divided in two ethnic groups: alpines (center and south) and teutonics (north). It concentrates on the capital city Berlín (3.4 million people), Hamburg (1.786.448 people), Münich (1.353.186 people), Cologne (1.007.119 people) and Frankfurt (679.664 people).

Overview of the country

Weather: Around -6 ºC to 1 ºC average in January, and around 16 ºC to 20 ºC in July. The rainfall can reach to 1.980mm per year on the south, mostly as snow; at the center, 1.500 mm as maximum; and 710 at the low lands of the north. Germany has air and water pollution issues.

Language: The main language in Germany is german, spoken by almost all the citizens. There are, but, a few dialects much different from the main german.

Religion: Around two thirds of Germany's population are Christian. They are fairly evenly split between Protestants and Catholics, but there are more Protestants in northern Germany, while the South has more Catholics. Germany is also home to around four million Muslims and about 100,000 Jews.

Gross domestic product: $2.96 billions (2010 )

Germany as a Market

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Germany are well known as a good market for tourism as, being one of the european most “rich” countries, they tend to spend good amounts of money when they travel. Spain is the first destination choice for them, with a 12,9 % of the trips, followed by Italy (7,2 %) and Turkey (7 %).

The rest of the german destinations are its borders countries: Austria (6,2%), Poland (2 %) or Denmark (1,6 %).

Rank Country Regional Market International Tourism Expenditures (2010)

1   Europe $77.7 billion

Germany as a destinationGermany is the major business trip destination in Europe (followed by France, UK and Spain). As an important industrial and business center, German cities are prepared to recieve them, with an extensive motor way net, conference infraestructures, roads, specialized companies,...

A part of the importance as a leisure destination, due its historical and cultural value, the percentage of the domestic trips within the country is huge too.

In total, Germany had 26.88 million visitors on 2010.

Business trips relevance

Berlin

Brandenburger Tor

Bundestag

The Black Forest

Rhine

Loreley

Unter den linden

Victory Column

Neuschwanstein

Auschwitz concentration campsGermany is not only well known by its cultural and economical influence, but for its history too. And specially, for the nazi crimes and its leader, Hitler. One of the places that makes more reference to all this history is the Auschwitz concentration camps, where between 2.5 and 4 million people, mostly jewish, were killed. In 1947, Poland founded a museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, which by 2010 had seen 29 million visitors—1,300,000 annually—pass through the iron gates crowned with the infamous motto, Arbeit macht frei ("work makes free").

Road and automotive transport

Main article: Autobahn

Germany has approximately 650,000 km of roads, of which 231,000 km are non-local roads. The road network is extensively used with nearly 2 trillion kilometers travelled by car in 2009, in comparison to just 70 billion km travelled by rail and 35 billion km travelled by plane.

Rail transport

Inter City Express trainMain article: Rail transport in GermanyRailways: total: 40,826 km, with at least 14,253 km electrified and 14,768 km double- or multiple-trackedDeutsche Bahn (German Rail) is the major German railwayinfrastructure and service operator.

S-Bahn

In some areas of Germany an urban railway called S-Bahn is in operation. These trains usually connect larger agglomerations to the suburban areas, although in the case of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn these also serve as a method of interurban transport between large cities (Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Hamsburg and Nuremberg/Fürth).

Air transport

Short distances and the extensive networkof motorways and railways make airplanesuncompetitive for travel within Germany(1%). But due the introduction of low-faresairlines, domestic air travel is becomingmore attractive.

Frankfurt International Airport isGermany's largest airport and a majortransportation hub in Europe (one of theairports with the largest number of international destinations served worldwide). Germany's second most important internationalairport is Munich. Other major airports areBerlin Tegel, Berlin Schönefeld, Düsseldorf,Hamburg, Cologne-Bonn, Leipzig/Halle.

Airlines

Germany's largest airline is former national carrier Lufthansa that was privatised in the 1990s. The group also includes domestic subsidiaries Lufthansa Cityline andEurowings that operate as Lufthansa Regional as wellas independently Operating low-cost subsidiary Germanwings.

Air Berlin became second largest airline in recent years by absorbing LTU and dba.

Charter carrier include Condor, TUIfly and Germania. In addition there are severalregional carrier such as OLT and Cirrus Airlines as well as cargo operator such asLufthansa Cargo and Air Cargo Germany.

Lufthansaand AirBerlinaircraft

Water transport

Waterways: 7,500 km; major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is an important connection between the Baltic Sea andNorth Sea, the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal links Rotterdam on the NorthSea with the Black Sea.

Ports and harbours: The port ofHamburg is the largest sea-harbour inGermany and ranks #2 in Europe, #7worldwide, in total container traffic.

Merchant marine: total: 4759 ships (with a volume of 1,000 gross registertons (GRT) or over) totaling 6,395,990.

Hamburg Harbour

The tourism organization

GNTB, The National Tourism Board represents Germany throughout the world as a destination for holidays, business and visits to friends and family. GNTB is supported by 64 members, including tourism companies, regional marketing organisations, associations and cooperative marketing ventures.

With a revenue of 185 billion euros in 2009, the German travel industry is helping to stabilise the economy.

Domestic tourism: 314 million overnight staysInternational tourism: 54.8 million overnight stays.

Gastronomy

Currywurst & Pommes frites

Spanferkel

German sausages and cheese

Famous German Brands: Adidas, Allianz, Audi, Bayer, Bosch, BMV, Deutsche Bank, Hugo Boss AG, Lidl, Loewe, Montblanc, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Siemens, Staedtler, Volkswagen Group, Wella...

German Beer: Germany has created a kind of “beer culture”, being just behind the Czechs and the Irish in their per capita consumption of beer. The highest density of breweries in the world is found near the city of Bamberg, in the Franconia region of Bavaria. They even celebrat the Oktoberfest, a 16-18 days festival celebrated in Munich at the late September.

Other notables features

For more information, click the link below:

http://www.germany.travel/nl/germany/over-ons/annual-report/jahresbericht.html