TORONTO — Not only has Germany reopened its doors to tourism, it’s also gearing up to host one of its marquee events: Oberammergau.

Postponed for two years due to the pandemic, the 2020 edition of Oberammergau is set to take place May 14 – Oct. 2, 2022. Many of Canada’s top tour operators have packages. And Oberammergau residents “are beyond excited to welcome back North American travellers to their picturesque village,” says Anja Brokjans, Director, Canada for the German National Tourist Office.

Brokjans, together with Ricarda Lindner, GNTO’s Regional Director, The Americas, hosted last night’s in-person industry event highlighting Germany’s new German. Local. Culture. marketing campaign, Oberammergau and all the magic that awaits travellers to Germany during December and the Christmas holidays.

Getting to Germany is increasingly easy as airlines work to expand capacity…

• Lufthansa: Montreal – Munich 3x/week; Toronto – Frankfurt daily;  Vancouver – Frankfurt 5x/week; Vancouver – Munich 3x/week
• Air Canada: Montreal – Frankfurt, daily; Toronto – Frankfurt, daily; Calgary – Frankfurt, 4x/week; Toronto – Munich, 3x/week
• Condor: Toronto – Frankfurt, 3x/week (until Jan. 8, 2022)

While Oberammergau looms large on Germany’s tourism calendar, so too do the country’s world-famous Christmas markets, a favourite for visitors (and locals) year after year. “Germany’s Christmas markets are back on,” said Brokjans to cheers. Bremen, Altötting and Leipzig are some of the best known, and all are returning for 2021.

Christmas market in Dresden, Germany

The GNTO’s ‘Christmas Sparkle’ campaign includes an easy-to-use landing page with links to the regularly updated sites of some of Germany’s biggest Christmas markets. 

The new German. Local. Culture. campaign on now through the end of 2022 will be promoted alongside German. Local. Crafts. and German. Local. Green. “Once you get away from the big cities, Germany is a haven for nature lovers,” says Brokjans.

Germany was one of the top five European destinations for Canadian travellers in 2019, with 437,000 visitors from this market. Almost three-fourths of that number (74%) was leisure, 15% was corporate travel and 11% was VFR.

At this point in the pandemic, “bookings are up, demand is rising,” says Brokjans. “It’s been a tough 19 months but we’re all looking forward to a significant restart. I believe next year will be a great year for the travel industry.”

More information about Germany including safety protocols can be found at Germany.travel.