Tourism in Schleswig-Holstein
Tourism is an important economic factor for Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. Thanks to its coasts on the North Sea in the west and Baltic Sea in the east, Schleswig-Holstein has a great variety of beaches and water sports facilities. Due to its geographical location on the way to Scandinavia it is also a transit area for tourists from all over Europe. Important tourist resorts. Statistics. In 2002 there were a total of 176,198 guest beds in Schleswig-Holstein, which were used that year by 2,968,406 visitors for 15,429,614 overnight stays. 278,786 der  visitors came from abroad, which represents about 8.6% of all overnighting guests. The bathing resorts on the Baltic Sea had somewhat more visitors (720,115) than those on the North Sea (604,548), but on average the North Sea guests stayed longer, so that the total of overnight stays was greater (5,122,549) than on the Baltic Sea. Less important to tourism were the climatic spas (153,538 visitors with 592,705 overnight stays) and health spas (132,337 visitors with 755,153 overnight stays). The most important destinations for tourists were, in order of the number of overnight stays: The most important health spa was Malente  with 232,000 overnight stays, most important climatic spa was Plön with 132,000 overnight stays. Most beautiful holiday destinations. A viewers' poll on holiday destinations in the NDR transmission area, that was carried out in 2007 for the NDR television with the title "The most beautiful holiday destinations in North Germany", resulted in the following rankings within Schleswig-Holstein: