German Media Give Broad, Tempered Coverage to Case

The attack on two German tourists in California was widely reported in the news media here, but the tone of the reports was moderate.

The television news show “Heute” remarked Tuesday that just last week a group of Norwegian tourists was attacked in Florida, suggesting that this sort of thing could happen to a tourist from anywhere, and that Germans should not feel singled out. Some journalists here pointed out that this was the first attack on German tourists outside a crime-ridden urban setting.

At Frankfurt-based DER Tours, one of the biggest German travel agencies offering trips to North America, spokeswoman Antje Zimmermann said her organization has so far had no client reaction to the California attack.

“Yes, we will go on recommending California to our customers,” she said.

California is widely seen among German tourists as the state that epitomizes the American way of life. Tourists who want to sample America and its culture tend to favor California. Florida, by contrast, has until lately been the destination of choice among Germans who primarily want to lie on the beach. Florida is seen as similar to Spain, but more exotic and chic.

Zimmermann said her organization’s business in Florida declined 30% from 1992 to 1993 because of the violence against tourists in that state. Since December, 1992, six German travelers have been killed in the United States (the California victim was the sixth), and the first four of these victims died in Florida. The fifth was a German soldier shot in New Orleans.

In recent years, about 40% of the German tourists traveling to America have gone to Florida. Zimmermann added that at the same time the Florida business was falling off, tours booked through her company to the rest of the United States increased by 5%.

Zimmermann said that the Germans who were attacked in California had not bought a package tour, but had written their own itinerary, and that this posed special problems for German travel agents. When customers book package tours to Florida, she said, her organization routinely gives them instructions on how to remain inconspicuous, stay safe in rental cars and avoid dangerous areas.