Munich set all-time investment, tourism, automobile manufacturing, exports and air transport records in 2004.

Inward investment
As of December 1, 2004, Munich was home to 359 foreign-owned high-techs, reports a database maintained for Bavaria's economics ministry by Swartzberg GmbH. Up a strong 8.5% over the previous end-of-year total, that figure was an all-time high for any city in Germany and in continental Europe.

Tourism
3.8 million and 8 million. Those were the numbers of tourists visiting and staying overnight in Munich in 2004. Both these figures are all-time records for the city.
Causing these 10% and 13% increases in tourists and overnight stays was a 13% rise in visitors from outside Germany. Among the fastest growing major countries were China (+45%), Japan (16%) and the USA (12%).
Behind these records: the enduring popularity of such classics as the Oktoberfest and the discovery of Munich as one of the world's great shopping destinations. Fully one third of the tourists listed 'shopping' as their main reason for visiting the city.

Automobile manufacturing
The BMW group, one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers is headquartered in Munich. The company's largest production and R & D facilities are also located in the city.
"The best year in our history" is how Helmut Panke, BMW's chairman, described 2004. With a great deal of justification. The company set new all-time highs for cars delivered (1.2 million), net income (€ 2.2 billion), revenues (€ 44.4 billion).

Exports
The success enjoyed by BMW and Audi in selling their products abroad powered the state of Bavaria to all-time export record, its eleventh in a row. At €118 billion, the exports were up a smashing 14% over 2003.
As much of the goods and the businesspersons making their ways to and from Bavaria came by airplane, it's not surprising that Munich Airport also set a new all-time record.

Air transport
Any way you look it at, it was a record year for Munich Airport, which set in 2004 daily, quarterly and annual all-time highs for passenger volume, airplane movements and airfreight forwarded.
Profiting from the state's booms in tourism and international trade, the airport registered an 11% rise in through-passengers – to a total of 26.8 million. The number of flights to and from the airport rose 8%. The largest increase was recorded in airfreight forwarded, which jumped 26%.

These figures made Munich the fastest growing Europe's top ten airports. Further rises are in store. More than 155,500 flights are scheduled for the winter season (November 2004 – March 2005). That's 9% more than in the previous year. New destinations served from Munich include cities in Florida and Africa.


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