Dresden (dpa/sn) – There is a hopeful sign for tourism in Saxony after the slump in the Corona period. Tourism Minister Barbara Klepsch (CDU) sees an upward trend at the end of the third quarter. “But that’s still not the pre-crisis level in 2019,” she said on Tuesday, referring to the current statistics in Dresden.
Guest arrivals are still lower at 18.3 percent and guest overnight stays at 14 percent. By the end of September there were 5.2 million arrivals and 13.4 million overnight stays, in the same period of 2019 there were 6.3 million and 15.6 million. There was a particular lack of tourists from abroad.
“On average, arrivals are 32.3 percent and overnight stays are 32.3 percent below those of 2019,” said Klepsch. That is the case throughout Germany, but “only a small consolation”. Within the Free State, the losses compared to 2019 ranged between 6.1 percent in the Leipzig region and 27.3 percent in the Elbland. “But in September you can see an increase, that’s positive.”
According to Klepsch, however, Saxon Switzerland recorded a decline of 25.6 percent compared to the same month last year. “This is also largely due to the forest fires.” The additional emergency aid was good. “130 applications have been made and over one million euros have been requested,” she said. In order to promote the region more intensively in winter and into the new year, “we are putting a further 100,000 euros on top for marketing”, in addition to the 300,000 euros made available by the Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen.
According to Klepsch, however, the shortage of skilled workers is also causing problems for tourism. There are no figures on how many people migrated during the Corona crisis. “Recovery is an issue,” she said. There is hope that the number of trainees has returned to the pre-pandemic level.
