Tourism as an Economic Factor in NRW

DIW Econ has, for the first time comprehensively examined the economic significance of the tourism industry in North Rhine-Westphalia based on internationally comparable calculation standards.

The study, which was conducted in cooperation with the Institute for Management and Tourism (IMT) of the West Coast University of Applied Sciences, concludes that total tourism consumption in NRW amounted to 41.1 billion euros in 2013.

The activities of the tourism industry make a direct contribution to economic output (gross value added) of 16.1 billion euros; this corresponds to a share of 2.95 per cent of the total economic output in the federal state. In 2013, 424,000 people were directly employed in the tourism industry in NRW. This corresponds to a share of 4.69 per cent of all employed persons in the federal state. This value is higher than the corresponding share of gross value added (2.95 per cent) and illustrates that the tourism industry is an employment-intensive sector. In terms of its employment impact, it is larger than the information and communication industry and nearly as large as the construction industry in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Link to short version (Tourismus NRW e.V.)

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