Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's largest Christmas market in Erfurt attracted hundreds of thousands of guests this year according to a new counting method, but remained below the one million visitor mark. 831,000 people visited the market in front of the atmospheric backdrop of Mariendom and Severikirche, as the city administration announced on Wednesday. That was significantly less than before the corona pandemic, but the counting methods are not comparable, said Erfurt's Mayor Andreas Bausewein (SPD).
In the run-up, the organizations had hoped for up to 1.5 million guests. In 2019, the state capital had spoken of two million visitors at the time.
Instead of extrapolations as before, according to the city administration, people were counted at the five main entrances on the market days from November 22nd to December 22nd. In addition, the flow of visitors was analyzed at three market hotspots. This means that realistic figures are now available for future planning, on which the security concepts could also be based, as Bausewein said.
831 coaches from 269 regions in Germany drove to Thuringia's state capital for the pre-Christmas market. International guests from seven countries also came by bus. In the previous year there were around 1300 buses.
While the market in Erfurt is already closed, people can still stroll through the Christmas market in Weimar, for example. The last stands there are scheduled to close on January 5th.
