European City Tourism shows impressive growth and moves ahead of the national level

European City tourism grew overall by around 5.9 % last year with international bed nights increasing by a staggering 8% – despite the gloomy economic backdrop. The results were presented at the European Cities Marketing BRIC conference in Zagreb this month during the launch of the 8th Edition of the ECM Benchmarking Report .

The report, prepared by MODUL University in Vienna, showed that London, Paris, and Berlin remain the three most popular European cities for tourists recording annual total bednight levels in excess of 20 million for the year 2011. Barcelona and Prague, on the other hand, achieved the highest year-on growth rates, running at an impressive 11% and 9% respectively.

The US continues to be the single most important source market, followed by Germany, the UK and Italy. Russia and China showed the highest year-on growth rates with a remarkable 36% and 30% respectively.