Hiking is the main draw for one out of four persons. Tourism Siebengebirge (Seven Mountains) distributed a questionnaire to 2,500 people in August and October of 2016. Of those, 881 were returned. It was found that use of the Drachenfels railway to get to the top of the mountain had declined from 263,800 riders in 2014 to 249,861 a year later. 260,000 hikers made their up the mountain on foot.

The big winner was Schloss Drachenburg, increasing its number of visitors from 2014 to 2016, from 147,000 to 209,000. The Siebengebirge Museum was not as popular with just over 10,000 visitors in 2014 and 2015.

36 percent who were surveyed said it was their first visit to the Drachenfels, while 27 percent had been there already two to five times. 36 percent came with their partner, 27 percent arrived with a group, and 17 percent were with their families. Just five percent made the trip on their own. 37 percent of visitors were between 30 and 60-years-old and ten percent were youth under 18.

A whopping 95 percent of those who filled out the survey were from Germany, with 1.3 percent from the Netherlands, 0.7 percent from Austria and 0.5 percent from Belgium. It should be noted, however that the questionnaire was issued in German only, so it could be that many foreign guests could not read it. 73 percent of visitors travelled to the Drachenfels by car, while ten percent came by railway. Nine percent took a boat across the Rhine to get there, and five percent came by bus. Three percent rode their bicycles to get to the Drachenfels.

Orig. text: Hansjürgen Melzer