Overview
- A nationwide Cima survey for the Handelsverband Deutschland polled about 5,000 people in May and June 2026 and found more than 80 percent say they will visit their city centre as often or more often in the future.
- The share of people who plan to go less often fell from roughly 35 percent in 2024 to about 17 percent in the new survey, marking the strongest attractiveness score since the pandemic.
- Shopping is the top reason people return to downtowns, followed by cafés and restaurants, while fitness and cultural offerings rank lower as visit drivers.
- Respondents reported that safety drops after dark—especially for women—and named drunken groups, litter, vandalism and vacant shops as causes, and they prefer fixes such as better lighting, cleaner public space and activated uses over bans.
- Study author Roland Wölfel and the HDE attribute the uptick to recent activation projects and investments and urge quick reuse of empty retail space through placement managers and incentives to prevent the recovery from stalling; coverage also frames the findings as a contrast to last year’s political criticism of the 'Stadtbild.'