Berlin taxi driver at BER airport: “No, I don’t drive tourists”

After a grueling journey from our holiday destination in England back to Berlin, which involved many different overcrowded means of transport, we finally managed to get a taxi into the city center and were happy to be home soon.

The young man behind the wheel apologized, saying the streets around the airport were busy—a lot of activity these days. Yes, it's vacation time, of course, we weaved a few pearls of small talk together, and there were indeed a lot of cars driving around us. Berlin, we thought, coming from the deserted English countryside with a sea connection—yes, of course, there's something going on here!

So many people are returning from vacation these days, the traffic is getting heavier, said the taxi driver. And surely there are also tourists, I suggested, who want to see beautiful Berlin on these glorious summer days. No, he hardly ever drives tourists, he replied. On his journeys from the airport to the city center and back, he practically only sees Berliners returning from vacation, like us.

I was astonished. Are there even fewer tourists in the summer than usual? Is it too hot? Did it rain too much earlier? Is Berlin too boring, too dangerous, the Spree simply too dirty and waveless, the lakes already overflowing? Has Berghain closed? Why doesn't anyone want to come?

The taxi driver didn't find this a particularly interesting topic. He was a smart guy. A business informatics student in a dual study program, he worked at his father's taxi company during his semester breaks and spent all day talking to the AI , which he was also using to train as a hairdresser.

Berlin is attractive to fewer tourists than last year

Berlin is backwater, I thought, as we approached the capital's skyline from the outskirts in the darkness of the approaching night. But there was no skyline at all. And there were apparently no tourists either. As we meandered through Kreuzberg , the city seemed slow and empty; I actually found it quite beautiful. The hotels are empty, I thought. The locals are sitting in the bars, and on my phone I really did read: Berlin attracted fewer tourists in the first half of the year than in the previous year. According to the Office for Statistics, around 5.9 million people visited the capital in the first six months, a decrease of 1.8 percent compared to 2024 .

The wet weather in July even had a positive effect on tourism in Berlin. Apparently, instead of a beach holiday with uncertain weather or a major fire, a city trip would be better? I had to get back home first and adjust to all these upside-down worlds.