No Place Like Home, German Vacationers Find

If every cloud--be it the threat of terrorism, an economic downturn or labor strife in Europe’s Sun Belt--has a silver lining, then the flip side of misfortune in Germany is shining just where it’s most needed.

German vacationers are staying close to home this summer in numbers so significant that domestic resorts in the depressed eastern states are booming. Conversely, charter tour operators serving the usually swarmed Mediterranean destinations are reporting double-digit drops in their income.

Foreign tourism has flagged throughout the developed world in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In this peripatetic nation, the search for safer diversions is bringing flocks of well-heeled travelers to newly restored Victorian spa towns and nature parks in regions that were neglected or off limits in the Communist era.

One of the country’s poorest states and hardly a household name among international travelers, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania suddenly finds itself in the sweet spot of summer tourism as Germans rediscover its Baltic Sea bathing spots and pristine lake country.

“We can’t get the help we need in the restaurant or housekeeping, and we’re booked out through the rest of the season,” says Antje Maerker, deputy director of the Binz Kurhaus hotel, who is happy with the renovated spa’s success but worried about maintaining good service.

The job boom, even if seasonal, is welcome news in this northeastern state, which suffers from nearly 18% unemployment and an exodus of young workers. Last month, the state employment office reported more than 100 unfilled positions on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen alone.

Major charter operators serving Majorca, Tunisia, the Canary Islands and other once-popular destinations are carrying about 15% fewer vacationers this summer. The Forsa polling institute reports that one-third of Germans plan domestic car trips this summer instead of their usual overseas sojourns. Even Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder opted for a break at his Hanover townhouse rather than his traditional Tuscan vacation.

Aside from the economic boost, the tempered wanderlust is also helping overcome assumptions that eastern resorts are inferior to the watering holes of the west.

Like most middle-aged Germans, shop owner Helmut Prignitz is proud of his stamp-filled passport. He talks fondly of his Mediterranean respites and a five-week U.S. tour from Atlantic City to Disneyland--but with a been-there, done-that indifference now that he’s discovered Germany’s own attractions.

“I came here for the first time a few years ago and was amazed at how much of the natural beauty remains intact,” the Hamburg native says, alluding to the four decades of Communist rule, during which the environment suffered from reckless industrialization. “People are afraid of Al Qaeda now, so they’re not going abroad. I, for one, wouldn’t go to an Arab country at the moment.

“But, like a lot of people, I’ve been surprised about what has been in our own backyards all these years.”

In the Mueritz lake region, hotel owners and boat rental shops in the resort of Waren also report land-office business this summer, even though the weather has been wet and cold compared with last season.

“Our promotional materials claim this is the part of Germany with the most sunny days, but it has really gone off the rails this year,” Waren Mayor Guenter Rhein says as rain lashes his office windows. “But people don’t come here for sunbathing. They come for the hiking and the hot springs and the boating, and now they are coming in droves because it is a place where they can relax in safety.”

The number of hotel beds has doubled in the last year, yet Waren’s 22 guest houses are booked solid for the season, Rhein says, and not just because of German hesitation to board aircraft.

“The image of eastern resorts has been turned on its head in the last 12 years,” the mayor says. “You read so much about the billions the government has invested in rebuilding the east, and in places like this Germans can see that they have really gotten something for their money.”

After a $100-million restoration, Waren’s historic harbor has recovered its 19th century charm, with pastel-painted townhouses standing stately guard over the marina and ever-larger yachts and sailboats moored there. As with most restoration projects in eastern venues, the federal government financed the improvements in hopes of just the sort of tourism upturn that is finally taking place.

At the Hotel Ingeborg, a quaint harbor-side hostelry, owner Juergen Grueneklee serves as a post-Communist poster boy for entrepreneurial spirit. Although he could expand from his current 28 rooms to satisfy growing demand, he says he wants to remain small enough to greet all guests by name when they come down to breakfast.

As head of the local hotel association, he has spearheaded services aimed at what he calls his bread-and-butter market, the 45-and-older crowd looking for a few days of active recreation.

“I call them ‘second life’ people--those whose houses are paid for and their kids are out of the house and they have both the time and the money to travel,” Grueneklee says. “This year, instead of Tunisia or Majorca, they are discovering the treasures of their own country.”

A favorite destination for the hordes of German travelers keen on history and culture, Tunisia has been erased from the tourism map since an April terrorist bombing killed 14 visiting Germans. Spanish and Italian resorts also are losing their usual business from Germans because of strikes by service industry unions and newly enacted taxes.

Though fear of terrorism is a key reason for eschewing faraway travel this year, yacht charter owner Thomas Schultz contends that the new euro currency is making his fellow Germans more aware of the real costs of vacations in traditional escapes elsewhere in Europe.

“People can see more easily now what it really costs in other countries, and the euro has made a lot of things more expensive,” says Schultz, echoing claims of consumer watchdogs that the common European currency has encouraged merchants to harmonize prices, usually upward.

Binz and Waren, like most eastern resorts, are considerably less expensive than established rest spots in the west, such as the Friesian Islands in the North Sea that stretch westward from the Danish peninsula. But some recent visitors complain that you still get what you pay for in the east.

“It’s cheap, but you can’t get a decent meal. It’s all pomme frites and pizza,” Berlin surgeon Steffan Tullius says of Usedom, the island south of Ruegen. He also bemoans what can still be indifferent service and the potbellied, beer-swilling patrons of resorts that aim for the bargain-hunters.

Ruegen and Usedom have been the greatest benefactors of the German return to homeland vacations, posting 20% increases in overnight stays this year, according to the state Tourism Board in Rostock.

But their success is highlighting a persistent deficiency in the eastern regions: highways capable of moving the expanding volume of visitors. The less-than-80-mile stretch from Rostock to Binz can take five hours.

“Traffic has long been a problem in this area and especially in times of bad weather,” says Binz spa association spokeswoman Petra Wolter. “When it rains and you can’t go to the beach, what do you do? You get in your car and drive to the other sights in the region.”