For Germans, the car remains the most popular means of transport for trips of all kinds, be they private or business-related.
During the Corona crisis, this trend intensified.
This is the result of data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), which was published on Tuesday.
According to this, last year a car was used for 69 percent of the 178.2 million private trips and business trips with at least one overnight stay in Germany or abroad.
A significant increase compared to 2019, the last year before Corona.
At that time, the car was used as a means of transport for 59 percent of trips.
On the other hand, there has been a decline in the popularity of air travel.
According to Destatis, their share has almost halved: from 17 percent in 2019 to 9 percent in 2021. Train travel, on the other hand, was at 17 percent last year at a similar level to 2019 at 16 percent.
Other modes of transport such as ships and coaches accounted for 6 percent in 2021.
The importance of the car as the most used means of travel by Germans is also evident when foreign and domestic trips are considered separately: At 59 percent, Germans undertook the majority of trips abroad by car in 2021.
For domestic trips, this proportion was even 72 percent.
According to calculations by the statisticians, there are clear differences when looking at air travel: while 30 percent of trips abroad in 2021 were made by plane, the proportion within Germany was only 1 percent.
On the other hand, the proportion of domestic train journeys was higher.
More than every fifth trip (22 percent) was made in this way in Germany last year.
For trips abroad, the train was used as a means of transport for 5 percent of trips.
Regardless of the mode of transport chosen, the most popular destinations for traveling abroad in 2021 were: Italy (share 16 percent), Austria (15 percent) and Spain (11 percent).