Berliners still remember the famous phrase, which became a slogan: “Berlin is poor, but sexy”. More than two decades since then-mayor Klaus Wowereit uttered that phrase, the German capital is still not out of its economic hole and this year has registered a new debt record of almost 76 billion euros, but the big question is: is it still attractive or is it simply poor?
If we look at tourist numbers, Berlin has failed to recover from the decline caused by Covid. Specifically, this year attracted fewer visitors than previous years. According to the Bureau of Statistics, nearly 9.2 million tourists visited the city in the first nine months of 2025. This represents a decline of 3.5% compared to the same period last year. Before the pandemic, Berlin was moving on very high numbers, with 14 million visitors in 2019. “I would say that tourism is stagnant at the moment,” explains Burkhard Kieker, CEO of Visit Berlin, the official tourism portal, who however underlines that Berlin continues to be among the three or four most visited cities in Europe, together with London, Paris and Rome, with 12.7 million visitors last year. In his opinion, this is not an isolated event, but London and New York are also struggling to return to pre-covid numbers. “It’s a bit like with Volkswagen. Even if Volkswagen sells half a million fewer cars in a year, it is still the largest car company in the world (in terms of revenue), and the same goes for Berlin,” explains Kieker.
However, the Brandenburg Gate or its legendary clubs such as the legendary Berghain do not seem to be a powerful enough attraction in a time of economic concern. More than half of the tourists Berlin welcomes are German and are known for their caution. Furthermore, we must take into account the fact that the prices of accommodation and gastronomy have also increased. Berlin has become 20% more expensive since 2019. But this is not an isolated fact. Everything costs more.
What affects Berlin and other German cities the most is the decrease in low-cost flights, something the hospitality and gastronomy sector warns against. Last year’s increase in air traffic tax led many companies to rethink their strategy in the European country. Flying to spend the weekend in Berlin, as has happened in the past, is too expensive for many people, who decide to opt for other destinations. “We see in the booking systems how many people are looking for flights to Berlin and, together with Italy, Spain is the country with the highest demand for flights to the capital. But in the end people don’t book because perhaps the flights are too expensive for them,” reflects Kieker.
The airport problem
Marcel Weber, president of the Clubcomission association, which works to maintain the famous Berlin night, thinks the same. “The airport is a big problem in Berlin. Getting there by plane is no longer as easy as it was before the coronavirus,” he says. “Berlin is still the place where people want to go, the reference point. This is still there, but we also have the task of preserving it.” For now, the government has just announced that it wants to reduce the tax that makes airline tickets more expensive starting from July 1, 2026.
The bohemian and cultural atmosphere is still there, despite the Berlin government’s budget cuts. Few places can boast of hosting three works. But the city is constantly changing: legendary venues like the Watergate are closing because they can’t cope with rising costs and declining tourists, and the squat houses that so shaped the cityscape after the fall of the Wall in 1989 are disappearing due to real estate pressure and speculation. For Kieker this evolution is not unusual. “Berlin is a city with many wounds from history. And I think that, as we know from market studies, it continues to be very interesting and attractive to people, as well as the fact that it continues to be a very tolerant and open city,” he defends.
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