In total, in 2008, the spending of German tourists increased by $7 billion compared to 2007. The most popular destinations for Germans are Spain, Italy, and Austria. According to Klaus Laepple, optimistic sentiments persist in the German tourism industry despite the crisis.
As Lenta.ru notes, the spending of Germans on tourist trips turned out to be much higher than that of tourists from any other country in the world. Thus, according to a preliminary estimate by Rostourism, Russian tourists left about $10 billion abroad in 2008, and the number of Russians traveling abroad amounted to 11 million people. At the same time, the number of Russians who went abroad on tour packages in the last months of last year decreased by 20-30%.