Southwest Florida International Airport is celebrating 20 years of nonstop travel between Fort Myers and Germany.

Flights between Southwest Florida International Airport and Dusseldorf in Germany helped bring 300,000 visitors from Germany alone to Lee County in 2012.

Those are the latest numbers from the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau.

They’re part of a bigger web of tourists coming to the county. Of the 4.6 million people who visited Lee County in 2012, 23 percent were foreign tourists.

The organization’s deputy director Pamela Johnson said international tourists help especially during the summer when fewer visitors are coming to the area.

“When you go out to shopping ventures like Miromar Outlets sometimes you’re the only person speaking English,” she said. “You hear so many different languages, which is beautiful. We’re really seeing a great shot in the arm not only in tourist tax collections, but certainly visitor expenditures to a local level. “

Visitors spent $2.7 billion in Lee County in 2012.