22.06.2005

Trend towards short-break holidays: Germany's biggest theme park is a tourism magnet

 

Europa-Park is developing more and more into a destination for short-break holidays. The park has already responded to this trend with the construction of the hotels "El Andaluz? in 1995 and "Castillo Alcazar? in 1999. With the opening of the new 4-star superior hotel "Colosseo? in June 2004, Europa-Park has increased its hotel capacity to 2.700 beds. With the new hotel, the Europa-Park Resort is the largest hotel resort in Germany. More than 3,7 million people have visited the leisure park in 2004. With this attendance, Europa-Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany.

Leisure time is very important for people living in industrial countries. Therefore, the leisure industry has developed into a very important economic factor. Despite the fact that many people are on a budget, they still want to enjoy their holidays. Especially the number of inland trips has clearly increased during the past years.
Europa-Park has been profiting from this trend for quite some time and was able to achieve a new record attendance with 3,7 million visitors in 2004. According to statistics of the German Tourism Association for 2002, the leisure park in Rust/Baden is the second most popular stationary destination after the Cologne Cathedral. In this ranking, it is clearly ahead of other stationary places of excursions.

At Europa-Park, the number of persons who visit the park repeatedly during one season and the number of visitors who stay longer than one day is increasing continuously. Approximately 75 % of the visitors have been to Europa-Park before. Currently, approximately 15 % of all vistors stay at Europa-Park for several days. Hence, the construction of the Roman-Italian hotel "Colosseo? was not surprising. Europa-Park's managing director is confident: "According to surveys, 1,4 million of our visitors would like to stay overnight. Even if just 25 % of them realise their intentions, our hotels and also the hotels in the neighbouring communities will be fully booked?.

The German market leader in the leisure industry has been focusing on quality ever since its opening in 1975. An excellent price-performance ratio, tidiness, cordiality of the staff members and innovative offers attract more and more vistors every year. In 1990 and 1996 Europa-Park was the only German leisure park to be honoured with a "very good? by the product testing authority "Stiftung Warentest?. In July 2004, Europa-Park got the best grades in a test, which was conducted by the leisure research institute B. A. T. on behalf of the German magazine "stern? in order to analyse the quality of German leisure parks.