Far and away the biggest slice of the pie is in city breaks, at 41 percent. Next on the list is multi-destination tours, at 14 percent, then rural tourism, at nine percent. In terms of source markets, the Netherlands is top, followed by Switzerland and then the USA. Word is that the UK has climbed to fourth in the current year.

Some 90 percent of visitor bookings are made online, with 18 percent via a travel agent or tour operator (either online or in person).

This year’s themes are sustainability and UNESCO World Heritage sites, with particular emphasis on newcomers, the Jewish-medieval heritage of Erfurt, and the Alpine and sub-alpine meadow marshes of Bavaria.

Looking back, this year’s result represents over 100 percent growth in Germany’s tourism since the year 2000, and it places the country sixth in Europe, behind (in order) Spain, Italy, France, UK and Austria (the latter only just).

Breaking down the figures even further, it seems that city breaks are easily the favourite activity, at 33 percent of the total, followed by multi-stop tours (21 percent). In both those categories, Germany is well ahead of the European average, but it lags behind that average massively when it comes to waterside holidays (only 8 percent in Germany, compared to 32 percent elsewhere in Europe).

Put simply, this lack of waterside holidays will forever be Germany’s Achilles heel. Water is a huge attraction for summer holiday mass tourism. The numbers who head for a sunny beach will always far outnumber those who decide to opt for a city. And Germany is not a beach destination, despite its two coasts; neither the Baltic or the North Sea are sufficiently appealing for northern Europeans with access to cheap flights to the Med.

So this lack of beach holidays means that families will generally go elsewhere. Which in turn means that German holidays are not going to feature in many people’s childhoods, so Germany tends to be a travel discovery made in one’s 20s, at the earliest.

That also means that the nation has to try harder than others. Many tourists return to the likes of Spain and France out of sheer force of habit, and because they don’t dare risk anything better. So Germany has to work hard to tear travellers away from their comfort zones, and these numbers show that it is doing so with steadily increasing success.

It’s been another good year for German tourism. Figures to June show a rise in British visitors of 7.5 percent over 2012, and while a good proportion of that is undoubtedly due to the upturn in business travel and the European economy, 55 percent is still leisure travel, particularly city breaks (Berlin accounts for a whopping 22 percent of all overnight stays). Looking back further, the number of British overnights in Germany has increased by a massive 30 percent in the decade since 2003, whilst the likes of France and Spain have been largely static over the same period.

The numbers break down as follows: The most popular city is Berlin, with more than twice as many overnights (1,002,175) as the secondmost popular, Munich. After Munich comes Frankfurt and then Hamburg. Berlin also counts as the most popular federal state, with Bavaria hard on its heels, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (Dusseldorf, Cologne and the Ruhr) and then by Hesse (Frankfurt and part of the Rhine valley). Germany also tops the worldwide league table when it comes to culture-related trips (ie classical concerts, opera festivals etc).

So why are British visitors picking up on Germany? The German tourist board ascribe some of the increase to the positive publicity emerging from the 2006 World Cup, staged in Germany. Positive leadership during the economic crisis has clearly helped, and Germany surprised everyone by emerging top in a ‘most popular country’ survey done by the BBC this year. Good air links have played their part, as have hotel prices which are considerably better value than elsewhere in Europe. For example the most expensive city in Germany, Munich, has an average price of €123, compared to the average in Paris of €256. And finally a small part of it has to be down to increased awareness of the range and diversity of what Germany has on offer, and a tiny part of the credit for that is due to websites like this one.

Next year’s themes the tourist board will be promoting are: 25 years since the Fall of the Wall (yes, it really is 25 years!), all the German UNESCO World Heritage sites, a big barrier-free travel initiative, and a celebration of 300 years since the first of the House of Hanover acceded to the British throne (being marked with the launch of the new Royal Heritage Route and website http://www.germany.travel/en/ms/royal-heritage/start/royal-heritage.html)

Onwards and upwards!

It’s tempting to concentrate on the city of Leipzig’s grand cultural and musical heritage and simply to start name-dropping, since some of the world’s most eminent musical figures and institutions are part and parcel of the city’s history: Bach, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the St Thomas’ Boys Choir. However, as important as all these most certainly are, 21st century Leipzig is a city that merges a number of ingredients into a very appealing urban cocktail (and lots of hidden treasures) – such as easy-going street life, innovative leisure ideas, impressive art nouveau and Renaissance architecture, plentiful green spaces plus a genuine fondness by the inhabitants for their city that is pleasingly evident in everyday life.

Just over an hour south of Berlin, locals call Leipzig ‘LE’, sounding like ‘LA’ in German. Fortunately, this is where the similarity with the US megalopolis ends since Leipzig has a proper city centre made for walking and exploring, whilst LA does not.

This is a city with a history that dates back more than 1,000 years and is still extremely buzzing. After Leipzig’s big birthday bash for the city’s 1000th anniversary in 2015, one might think the party is over but far from it: the city of books and music is as lively as ever and each year offers a calendar full of festivals and events.

The historical centre inside the so-called Ring which follows the old town fortification covers one square kilometre and is a maze of wide pedestrianised zones, small cobble-stoned lanes and a whole network of courtyards, passages or arcades and palatial trade fair halls, one of Leipzig’s stand-out features.

Much of the original city plan dates back a mere 500 years, when the distinctive city passages were built to save horse-drawn carriages from having to reverse in the courtyards and are closely connected to the city’s history as a trade hub. There are now 30 of these arcades, 20 of them originals, housing small shops, boutiques, cafés and restaurants. The old ones have been beautifully restored such as Mädler Passage, a splendid walkway featuring the famous Auerbach’s Keller which was immortalised in Goethe’s Faust. Barthels Hof, the last remaining trade courtyard from the trade fair period in the 18^th century, has a stunning Renaissance facade, the oldest surviving one from a Leipzig residence, and in Specks Hof, the oldest remaining passage, three colourful atriums feature murals and paintings by contemporary artists.

Welcome to LE where classic culture and street life meet

A walk around Leipzig’s city centre will also automatically lead to some of the aforementioned musical powerhouses. There’s the Bach Museum opposite St Thomas’ Church where the composer served as cantor from 1723 to 1750, the Mendelssohn House, the only remaining private residence of the composer, or the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Leipzig was able to transform and reinvent itself after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and one example of creative reinvention is the Spinnerei, a former cotton mill that is now a thriving artist community with galleries and artists’ workshops, most notably that of internationally renowned Neo Rauch, a key figure of the so-called ‘New Leipzig School’.

Another example of new uses for old industry is the Panometer, where Berlin-based panorama artist and architect Yadegar Asisi creates monumental 360-degree panoramas inside a former gasometer. The current exhibition (until 15 January 2017) is called  ‘Leipzig 1813 – in the turmoil of the Battle of the Nations’, and after that, a Titanic panorama will feature.

Apart from a very lively restaurant and bar scene with about 1,400 establishments including almost 400 with al fresco seating (or, a Freisitz, as they say in town), Leipzig also offers some attractive outdoor features: a maze of canals within the city that includes a water route from an inner city marina to Lake Cospuden outside town. ‘Route 1’ with a length of 11 km takes canoeists and paddlers along park landscapes and past late 19^th century villas to the Leipzig New Lakeland recreation area about 10km south of the city, a system of lakes that developed from former opencast mines.

Further waterways interconnect Leipzig with the whole of the New Lakeland, and that along with surrounding villages and countryside is now all being promoted as a region, and not just as a city. And there’s a new four-part Leipzig Region brand logo to go with the enlarged profile, representing the castles and history of surrounding Burgenland, the lakes and waterways of Lakeland, the nature experiences of the local heathland, and finally of course the city itself.

Leipzig seems to do it all with ease.