Ljubljana high among European capitals

A recent study about city tourism in European capitals has revealed that Ljubljana, next to Berlin and Stockholm, is ranked among the top three European capitals with the highest growth rate of overnight stays by tourists in the last five years, while according to growth in the numbers of bed capacities in tourist accommodation facilities, Ljubljana actually takes the lead. It also leads according to the number of international tourist overnight stays.

The study was published by the company Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in December 2011 and contains an analysis of tourism in 24 European capitals. They analysed seven criteria: the number of overnight stays, the growth in the number of overnight stays, the growth of bed capacities, generating added value (revenue per room), internationality (share of European and non-European tourists), accessibility (number of direct air routes) and the number of congresses.

The researchers ranked the capitals in two groups according to the number of overnight stays, allowing a comparison of comparable cities. The first group lists top ten cities in light of the number of overnight stays and Ljubljana was placed in the other group with the remaining 13 cities. Ljubljana took the leading or a high-ranking spot in as many as three categories.

Next to Berlin and Stockholm, Ljubljana was ranked among the top three European capitals with the highest growth rate of overnight stays by tourists in the last five years, while, according to the number of overnight stays per capita, Ljubljana remains below average. Alongside this, it also took the first place according to the criterion of the growth of bed capacities in accommodation facilities in the five-year period from 2005 to 2010 (+ 11%, the countries’ average is 3%), followed by Tallinn and Istanbul, although these lag behind quite severely. The researchers substantiate this as a good indicator that the private sector and investors trust the tourist industry and its potentials in the capital.

Along with this, Ljubljana also took another top spot – among European capitals, the largest share of international tourists (96%, of which 20% are non-European residents) spend the night in Ljubljana.

According to a joint analysis of all seven criteria, Ljubljana took fifth place in the second group of countries. The first three places were taken by Zürich, Lisbon and Copenhagen, followed by Brussels and Ljubljana and then by Helsinki, Tallinn, Oslo, Budapest, Athens, Luxemburg, Zagreb, Bratislava and Belgrade. In the group of Top 10 capitals, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome took the podium.

A summary of the study can be found here.

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