Positive first-half results

Number of overnight stays in Hannover's hotels almost at the level of the record year 2019

In the first half of 2023, the number of hotel overnight stays in Hanover—at just over 1.1 million—was only 1.1 percent below the figure for 2019, the pre-COVID and record-breaking year.

Collage Featuring Scenes from Hanover — Hanover Collage

This is confirmed by the official figures released today by the Lower Saxony State Office for Statistics (LSN).

While the months of January through March were still down 11.7 percent compared to 2019, overnight stays began to recover significantly starting in April. The months of April through June this year actually outperformed 2019. In June, hotels in the state capital recorded 216,991 overnight stays (compared to 200,853 in 2019), a solid increase of eight percent. In the previous year, 2022, the State Statistical Office recorded 212,961 overnight stays in the state capital.

Compared to 2022, when the first few months in particular were still heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of overnight stays actually increased by 31.8 percent in the first half of 2023.

“Despite the difficult conditions and the challenging market environment, marked by inflation and significant price increases, the first half of the year can certainly be described as a success for tourism in Hanover,” said Hans Nolte, managing director of Hannover Marketing und Tourismus GmbH, commenting on the interim results.

However, there is still room for growth in the number of overnight stays across the entire region. In the first half of the year, figures in the surrounding municipalities were 5.7 percent below those of 2019. Hans Nolte, head of tourism, said: “There is still ground to make up when it comes to overnight stays in the Hanover region as a travel destination. It remains to be seen whether the summer season in this vacation region can offset the losses from the first six months. We will continue to carry out our initiatives, such as the current campaign ‘Take a Closer Look!’, tips and suggestions for day trips on our social media, and our offerings for attractive, sustainable tourism. We will also continue to promote the Hannover vacation region through Germany-wide marketing efforts, including posters and advertisements.”

The fact that the comparative figures are primarily based on 2019 is due to the fact that the years 2020 through 2022 were dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.