Tourism boom in Schleswig-Holstein: overnight stay record in 2025!

Tourism boom in Schleswig-Holstein: overnight stay record in 2025!

In the first half of 2025, Schleswig-Holstein once again achieved an overnight stay record. According to the current figures, 4.2 million guests spent their vacation in this beautiful federal state. Tourism is flourishing and not just because 95 percent of the guests come from Germany. The bottom line is an impressive 15.8 million overnight stays in hotels, guesthouses and campsites. This shows that interest in Schleswig-Holstein as a travel destination remains high. Loud NDR the increase in overnight stays increased by 0.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Camping is becoming increasingly popular and it shows! The number of camping guests rose by 5.8 percent to over 611,000, and overnight stays in campsites with ten or more pitches increased by 4.5 percent to around 1.96 million. This accounts for 12 percent of total overnight stays, followed by health trips, which account for 11 percent. Despite this positive development, there was a decline in overnight stays inland: around 94,000 fewer than in the previous year, bringing the total number down to just under 2.3 million.

The competition for tourists

Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen emphasized how important it is to invest in new accommodation in order not to fall behind in the tough competition for tourists. “In order not to lose touch, we need innovative ideas and appropriate investments,” says Madsen. Bettina Bunge, the managing director of the Schleswig-Holstein Tourism Agency (TA.SH), also emphasizes the expansion of the conference and congress business, which also makes a major contribution to the positive trend.

The competition from other federal states is not sleeping, because Schleswig-Holstein was also able to report record numbers in 2024 with 9.4 million guest arrivals and over 38 million overnight stays, including camping. German guests accounted for 94.5 percent of overnight stays. The slightly increasing number of foreign visitors comes mainly from Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Poland, such as Day ticket reported.

A look at the future challenges

While Schleswig-Holstein was the most popular domestic travel destination for vacation trips of at least five days in 2024, the state positioned itself ahead of prominent competitors such as Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Despite these positive developments, both Minister Madsen and Bunge remain cautiously optimistic. They warn against excessive prices and appeal to those involved in tourism to create a fair and attractive price-performance ratio in order to continue to attract guests.

Overall, it shows that Schleswig-Holstein is well on its way to establishing itself as an attractive travel destination. The positive developments in tourism are a good sign, but local actors are aware that there is still a lot to do to secure these successes in the long term.