Press release No. 461 of 19 November 2020

Turnover in accommodation and food service activities, September 2020 (provisional)
-3.9% real on the previous month (calendar and seasonally adjusted)
-4.4% nominal on the previous month (calendar and seasonally adjusted)
-23.7% real on the same month a year earlier
-19.7% nominal on the same month a year earlier

WIESBADEN – Compared with August 2020, the German hotels and restaurants sector did not continue to recover in September 2020. According to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), turnover in the hotels and restaurants sector was 3.9% smaller in real terms (price-adjusted) and 4.4% smaller in nominal terms (not price-adjusted) in September 2020 than in August 2020. However, turnover in real terms (after calendar and seasonal adjustment) was still 24.9% lower than in February 2020, the month before the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Germany.

The impact of the crisis shows clearly also in a year-on-year comparison. Turnover in the hotels and restaurants sector fell by 23.7% in real terms and 19.7% in nominal terms in September 2020 compared with September 2019. The turnover reported by the hotels and other accommodation establishments was 27.3% lower in real terms than in September 2019. In the food and beverage services, turnover decreased by 21.3% in real terms from September 2019. Within food and beverage service activities, the real turnover of caterers was 33.5% lower in September 2020 than in the same month of the previous year.

European data on accommodation and food services
Results on accommodation and food services in other EU countries are contained in the Eurostat’s database. At the moment, the database includes data for almost all countries for August 2020.

Results on Turnover in accommodation and food services are available on the "Corona statistics" webpage of the Federal Statistical Office together with other indicators which can be used to assess the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

German EU Council Presidency
The Federal Statistical Office will organise the meetings of the Council Working Party on Statistics to be held during Germany’s EU Council Presidency under the chairmanship of its President Dr. Georg Thiel. Information on our activities during the Presidency of the Council of the EU is provided at destatis.de/eu2020.

European statistics are available under "Europe in figures" on our website at www.destatis.de.

Methodological notes:
The survey covers enterprises in the in accommodation and food services sector with a turnover of at least 150 000 Euro per year. Destatis takes into account late notifications from the enterprises surveyed and therefore continuously updates the first proven results.

The revision tables provide information on the impact of the updates on the results.

The results of accommodation and food services statistics may differ from those of tourism statistics, especially in the summer months, because turnover in accommodation establishments does not always match the date of overnight stays. Methodological differences may also lead to different results.

Time series are available in table Turnover from accommodation and food services (45213-0005) in the GENESIS-Online database.