Secretary of State for the Economy Francine Closener today presented the statistics for Luxembourg's tourism industry over the last six months, revealing that 403,900 tourists visited Luxembourg's top five tourist attractions in this period.
The report, conducted by The National Tourist Office (ONT), examined 70 hotels, 19 campsites, all youth hostels, 11 information centres and 41 tourist attractions to determine how tourism had evolved in the first six months of the year from 2014 to 2015.
For the period of January to June 2015, hotels experienced the strongest growth (22.3%) amongst Luxembourgish residents, whilst camping proved to be most popular for British tourists during this time with an increase of 26.6%. Youth hostels experienced an 18.7% increase in overnight stays from German visitors, but decreased in popularity by 23.2% amongst Italian visitors.
Contrary to this, MKG Hospitality reported that the average price for a one-night stay in a hotel room in Luxembourg was at the highest in Europe during the first five months of 2015, reaching €117 in May-June 2015. Despite this annual price increase of 9%, the occupation rate of Luxembourgish hotel rooms increased 1.4% both in the May-June 2015 period and overall annually and held the second highest room occupation rate among 13 countries surveyed for the first five months of 2015.
Despite the 20% increase in overnight camping stays in 2014 representing a pre-season record, 2015 signified a 4% fall in this domain. The average stay also decreased from 4.5 to 4.3 nights from May-June 2014 to May-June 2015 as compared to an increase from 2.2 to 2.3 nights within the same period for the hotel industry. However camp site overnight stays and caravanning continued to increase, by 21% and 22%, respectively, from January-June 2014 to the same period in 2015. 28% of overnight camping stays in the first half of 2015 were booked by visitors staying at the establishment for the first time.
Youth hostels experienced a strong increase in interest, with overnight stays rising 7.7% for the period of May-June and 7.3% for the first six months of 2015, with regards to the previous year. Certain regions of the country were found to have experienced more success in this sector than others. For Müllerthal, overnight stays grew 21% from January to June 2014 to the first six months of this year and 6% for the City Centre; whereas the Moselle region saw a decrease of 5% and the Ardennes 6%.
The report revealed that promotional efforts by the National Tourist Office (ONT) of Luxembourg to cater to the German market has resulted in a 6% rise in overnight stays from German tourists as compared to 2014 and a 1.5% increase in the months of May-June 2015. French visitors also increased their number of stay in hotels and youth hostels by 2.4% from 2014 to 2015. The ONT reported that a weaker euro stimulated growth in Luxembourg's tourism industry through long-distance trips from residents of faraway countries. One notable exception was Russia, which demonstrated a decrease of 19.6% in nights spent here compared with January-June 2014, and a fall of 15.3% with regards to May-June 2015.
Luxembourg also gained in popularity as a destination for Americans and Canadians, with January-June 2015 figures showing a 18.4% and 11.5% increase, respectively, in nights stayed. According to American travel website company TripAdvisor, Luxembourg's American Cemetery Memorial is rated as the top thing to visit in the country, with Diekirch's National Museum of Military History rated as fourth.
Luxembourg's overall top five tourist attractions remained the same, with the over 135,000 visitors to Bettembourg's Parc Merveilleux in January to June 2015 marking a 4.4% decrease from the same period in 2014 but keeping its position as the Number One attraction. Participants in Luxembourg City's guided tours, in second place, grew by 7.3% in January-June 2015 to 121,120 visitors, and could continue to rise if interest is shown in the recent addition of the Plateau du Rham in the Circuit Wenzel. In terms of tourist popularity, the tours were followed by the Château de Vianden with 54,095 visitors; the Bock Casemates with 52,623; and the MUDAM museum with 40,216.
Top photo by Sarah Graham (Secretary of State for the Economy, Francine Closener)
Bottom photo by MECO (L-R: Marc Angel, President of LCTO ; Francine Closener, Secretary of State for the Economy)
