2020: Difficult year for Cologne Tourism 3 weeks ago The downturn in tourism has been drastic, and its effects on the entire sector have been extreme. Nonetheless, things could have turned out even worse for Cologne. Cologne Tourism registered 1.44 million arrivals and 2.56 million overnight stays in the cathedral city After getting off to a very good start into 2020 and having the best February of all time, tourism came to a complete halt in Cologne because of the worldwide travel restrictions imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the two lockdowns in March/April and November/December The tourism business in Cologne was hard-hit in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The State Statistical Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, IT.NRW, registered 1.44 million arrivals and 2.56 million overnight stays in the cathedral city. These numbers represent a decrease of 62.3 percent for registered arrivals in Cologne’s hotels and 61.1 percent for overnight stays.