Jahresrückblick 2011

Our anniversary year was also a record year. For the tenth year in a row we were able to establish a new record of annual visitor numbers. This year we had more than 1.200.000 guests. A remarkable record! In 2010 we still had 1.070.000 guests. And ever more visitors travel from abroad just to come and see us. By now, Wunderland was able to greet guests from 186 different countries. The only nationalities missing are guests from Antigua and Barbuda, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Micronesia, East Timor, Palau, St.Lucia, St.Kitts, and Nevis. Wouldn’t it be ridiculous, if we weren’t able to attract visitors from these 8 countries in 2012?

For weeks, we have worked on a video depicting Wunderland with spectacular images in 5 minutes. With this video, we hoped to reach fans all around the world. But what happened then topped our wildest imagination. Within a few days, we got 1.000.000 clicks, were on 3rd position in the German Youtube charts: ahead of Sido, Bushido, or Lady Gaga.We were reported about in blogs and magazines from Melbourne to Zurich. By now the video has been viewed almost 3.500.000 times.

It was just a date in the calendar, but still a special day for us. We celebrated our anniversary together with more than 1.000 fans and friends. For the second time since our opening, we made a night of it. Besides all joy, August 16th was also a day of reflection and retrospection. It’s simply unbelievable what has happened in the past 10 years. Beginning with 20 people, we now have more than 260 employees, and an idée fixe turned into Hamburg’s most successful tourist attraction by far.

After six years of developing, 3.5 million Euro construction costs, and 150.000 working hours, we finally made it: on May 4th Knuffingen Airport was inaugurated by our mayor Olaf Scholz, and Formula-1 legend Nikki Lauda. More than 100 journalists attended this event, making it public on all 5 continents. Since the inauguration, 61.757 Airplanes have taken off and landed in Knuffingen.

In the past years, Miniatur Wunderland’s fame has steadily increased, even internationally. We’ve reached another milestone in April 2011. In a Saturday night show on BBC, we competed against TV-Star James May in a great train race. The show has been broadcast in 132 countries. In England alone, 3.5 million people were hanging at the edge of their seats. A reprise on German grounds is in consideration!

In our tenth year it happened, at last: the 1 millionth Hamburg citizen has visited Wunderland, and was welcomed in state. By now (Status January 10th), we had 1.073.908 guests from Hamburg. Herewith Hamburg is the third strongest State, behind Lower Saxony (1.351.744), and North Rhine-Westphalia (1.194.321)