The World Cup had a strong impact in 2006 with overnight stays up by 7.2 million compared to 2005. However, the long term impact is harder to discern. Germany did experience the second fastest growth in leisure arrivals from 2006 to 2012 in Western Europe behind only Turkey. It is likely that the event helped to improve Germany’s image amongst leisure travellers, aided by the World Cup motto of “A time to make friends.”