Contribution to an anthology
Year of publication: 2023
Authors:Christian Eilzer, Tim Harms
2019-2023
The entry of new destinations that have created hiking offers or are marketing existing offers more actively has increased the competitive situation on the hiking market. This makes it all the more important for destinations to design hiking tourism offers tailored to their target groups and generate hiking experiences based on insights into the needs of demand. New groups have also discovered hiking during the Covid-19 pandemic and the German Institute for Tourism Research has investigated their needs. Since 2019, the German Institute of Tourism Research (since 2020) and the Institute of Management and Tourism (IMT) (until 2020) have been investigating certain aspects of the German hiking market in various representative studies in order to gain detailed insights into the hiking guest. The individual studies are described below.
Image of the hiker project
Hiking is “in” and has undergone a positive image change – this has been postulated in particular since the early 2000s. A number of reasons are cited for the shift towards a “positive, modern image” (BMWI 2010, Grundlagenuntersuchung Freizeit- und Urlaubsmarkt Wandern, p. 32) of hiking, such as a higher value placed on nature and a health and exercise-oriented lifestyle, new products from the equipment industry, the participation of younger and more active target groups, the merging of hiking with other vacation motives and activities and a stronger commitment from those involved in hiking tourism. But what is the image of the hiker today? How do Germans view hikers and what characteristics are attributed to them? And how appealing are terms such as hiker, walker or mountaineer? The German Institute for Tourism Research investigated these questions in a nationwide representative study. Norstat Deutschland GmbH surveyed 2,056 people in the period from 11.11.2022 to 02.12.2022.
Project results
2021 hiking study project
The 2021 hiking study focused on hikers who decided to take one or more hiking vacations in Germany due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the original travel plans, the repeat intention of the “new” hikers for a vacation with hiking in Germany and the effects on hiking behavior were examined. The market research institute Ipsos surveyed 3,001 people across Germany as part of an online ad-hoc survey. This study is also representative of German-speaking Internet users aged 16 to 75 living in private households. In the study, 46% of respondents stated that they had taken one or more vacations in Germany since March 2020 during which they had hiked. Of these, just over half had not planned this vacation with hiking activity as such before the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority had no vacation plans before March. With regard to the last vacation, around 14% wanted to go on a hiking vacation, but not in Germany – and mostly in other European countries. The remaining respondents would either have taken a vacation in Germany but not a hiking vacation, or neither a hiking vacation nor a vacation in Germany.
Project results
Recommended reading
2020 hiking study project
Following the first survey in 2019, the German Institute for Tourism Research (which emerged from the IMT) conducted its second representative survey of German-speaking internet users aged 16 to 75 living in private households in October 2020. This survey was also conducted by the market research institute Ipsos.
In addition to repeating most of the questions from 2019 with the aim of obtaining comparisons over time, a special section was added in 2020 to examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on demand in hiking tourism. The results show that there have been shifts in leisure behavior, including in favor of hiking tourism in Germany.
The results of the survey were used in the 2020/2021 winter semester in the seminar “Success factors for destinations in the context of a strengthening hiking tourism” of the bachelor’s degree program “International Tourism Management” at the FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences as a data basis for the preparation of qualitative contact methods. The aim of the seminar is to use selected regions to determine which factors are important for a region to benefit from the hiking infrastructure and from hiking tourism as a whole.
Project results
Recommended reading
2019 hiking study project
Project description
In 2019, the institute examined the migration behavior of Germans for the first time. The survey is representative of German-speaking Internet users aged 16 to 75 living in private households. The survey was conducted by the market research institute Ipsos as part of an online multi-topic survey (i:omnibus:). The following aspects, among others, were examined in 2019:
Project results
All project results can be found here in the download area.
West Coast University of Applied Sciences
German Institute for Tourism Research
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