Tourism and Economic Development

"Berlin may be economically depressed, but tourism is on the rise.
Germany's capital has edged out Rome to become the third
most-visited city in Europe, with 13m visitors per year, according
to the city's official tourist office. London, with its 60m visitors,
is the top tourist destination, followed by Paris with 30m visitors.
But third place does not seem good enough for the city-state's
government, which is pushing a raft of measures to make the city
more tourist-friendly. Moves include creating more parking
places at the new main rail station and near popular attractions.
The city also plans to take better advantage of Berlin's numerous
waterways, though there must first be more boat-refuelling
stations. Local officials are encouraging owners of hotels and
restaurants to train their staff in foreign languages and city
history. From August, the government will offer a three-year
course to teach young people how to deal with tourist groups
and to work at tourist attractions."

See Economist.com:
http://www.economist.com/cities/briefing.cfm?city_id=BER#Welcoming_guests

Aerial image of new Main Train Station (Lehrter Bahnhof), Berlin:
http://www.met.fu-berlin.de/~stefan/lehrter-bahnhof.jpg

*

In the aerial image above, the long glass building, behind
the new Main Train Station, in the former eastern zone
of the city, is the new offices of the Federal
Statistical Office Germany:
http://www.destatis.de/e_home.htm