Whether New Year's rest on Usedom, a walk on the beach in Warnemünde or Christmas wellness on Rügen with a view of the Baltic Sea - the holiday regions in the north-east await holiday guests. But the mood in the tourism industry is subdued.
Rostock/Bergen (dpa/mv) - Last-minute travelers who want to vacation on the island of Rügen over Christmas still have a chance of finding accommodation. A spokeswoman for the Rügen Tourism Association said there were still rooms available, especially in larger hotels. "There's still something." There are also private holiday homes. However, if you want to take a holiday on Rügen over the New Year, you should hurry up. Because then the booking situation is tighter. Overall, the bookings are not yet at the pre-Corona level.
According to a survey by the state tourism association, the expected occupancy rate in MV for Christmas in the houses is only around a third and thus lower than in previous years. According to the information, the companies are currently almost 60 percent booked on New Year's Eve; the expected utilization is around 70 percent.
The survey took into account 350 companies nationwide, including hotels, vacation rentals, campsites, leisure providers and catering establishments. Concerns about energy security and prices are slowing down the desire to book and increasing uncertainty among hosts, it said. Compared to the same period last year, prices also went up for trips to MV: according to the survey, by 14 percent compared to the previous year.
In the northeast, two of the eleven youth hostels operated by the German Youth Hostel Association in 2002 are also open over Christmas: in Warnemünde and in Burg Stargard. The one in Heringsdorf (Usedom) also opens on New Year's Eve.
The German youth hostel association Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had already decided in October to open only three of its youth hostels due to the booking situation not covering costs and the imponderability of energy prices, as spokeswoman Miriam Gedrose said. "However, the summer season was very, very good. The guests are coming back."
With the eleven youth hostels in operation in 2022, around 280,000 overnight stays are expected to be achieved by the end of the year. These eleven locations are around ten percent below the level of the pre-Corona year 2019 (308,000 overnight stays). For 2023, the youth hostel association expects to reach the level of overnight stays from before the pandemic.
