Update Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for Berlin 2020
Tourism plays an important economic role in Berlin. The new edition of the TSA study for the reference year 2020 not only once again quantifies economic indicators – gross value added and employment – related to tourists’ consumption*. For the first time, the impact of the Corona pandemic on Berlin tourism is also calculated by DIW Econ in cooperation with TouristiCon and dwif, on behalf of visit Berlin.
Berlin attracts many tourists thanks to its central location in the heart of Europe, its unique history and diverse cultural offerings. Recently, however, the tourism sector in Berlin also suffered from the consequences of the Corona pandemic. The travel restrictions and limitations on public life resulting from the pandemic had a far-reaching impact on tourism in 2020.
The results of the Tourism Satellite Account for 2020 show that the regional economic importance of tourism in Berlin plummeted due to the Corona pandemic. As a result, tourism gross value added and the number of people employed through tourism fell by more than half in some cases compared to the previous year, 2019.
Tourism consumer spending
- Overall, tourism consumption in Berlin amounted to 8.0 billion euros in 2020. Compared with the previous year, this is a decline of 8.9 billion euros or 52.7 per cent.
Impact on value creation and employment
- Sales generated by tourism consumption in 2020 were responsible for a gross value added of 3.1 billion euros, or 2.2 per cent of Berlin’s total economic output. In the previous year, tourism consumption led to a direct gross value added of 6.8 billion euros, or 4.8 per cent of total economic output.
- Tourism was directly responsible for approximately 75,600 jobs as an employment-intensive sector in 2020. This corresponds to 3.7 per cent of all employees in Berlin. In 2019, around 188,000 jobs or 9.1 per cent of all employees in Berlin were still attributable to the direct influence of tourism consumption.
- Overall (directly and indirectly), tourism in Berlin contributed around 3.2 per cent (2019: 6.6 per cent) to total economic management with gross value added effects of 4.5 billion euros (2019: 9.4 billion euros) and around 4.6 per cent (2019: 11 per cent) to total employment in the state with 95,600 jobs (2019: 227,900).