APPROXIMATELY 40 per cent of the people travelling to Germany from the Gulf states come from Saudi Arabia, followed by approximately 30 per cent each from the UAE and Kuwait, and three per cent from Bahrain.
About half (47 per cent) of all travel to Germany by people from the Arabian region is for holidays, while 17 per cent is for business and 37 per cent is for leisure or health and fitness. Germany is currently the second most popular travel destination (market share 13 per cent) after the UK for people visiting Europe from the GCC. In 2005, the number of overnight stays in Germany by visitors from this region increased by 26.7 per cent to a total of more than 0.6 million, or 1.3 per cent of all overnight stays in Germany by foreign visitors.