German interest in air travel to the soccer World Cup in Qatar is increasing. The number of flights from Germany to Qatar in September was around 900 percent higher than in January. This means that the interest of German fans is behind other source markets, but with a 2,6 percent share of the total number of World Cup tourists, Germany ranks 12th.

This is the result of data from the tourism marketing company Sojern, which records the booking behavior of travelers worldwide. According to Sojern's analyses, most of the World Cup tourists come from the neighboring countries of the United Arab Emirates (17 percent), followed by the USA (7 percent), India (7 percent) and Great Britain (6 percent). Most German World Cup fans travel to Qatar via Frankfurt (51 percent). Munich (19 percent), Berlin (14 percent) and Düsseldorf (8 percent) follow. The cities of Hanover and Stuttgart have recently also shown strong growth.

Mathias Gerber, Sales Director Sojern DACH: “In an international comparison, Germany is in 12th place among feeder markets after Qatar. Global demand for trips to the Middle East is high overall and is above the figures for 2019. It will be interesting to see whether travel intentions to Qatar and the surrounding GCC countries from Germany will continue beyond the tournament into 2023.”