The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour returns to Germany from August 8 to 13 for the double-gender Swatch FIVB Hamburg Major. The Hamburg event will mark the 17th time for a men’s competition in Germany and 11th women’s tournament held in Germany. The 2017 event will be the second straight FIVB World Tour event held in Hamburg as all of the previous tournaments were held in Berlin.

Through 2016, Germany has hosted a total of 26 FIVB World Tour events (16 men, 10 women).

In last year’s inaugural FIVB event in Hamburg, winning the men’s gold medal was USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena while capturing the women’s gold medal was Germany’s Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst. Ludwig and Walkenhorst both live in Hamburg.

Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is also the 13th largest German state. Its population is over 1.7 million people, and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighboring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 5 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe.

Hamburg is a transport hub and is an affluent city in Europe. It has become a media and industrial center, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm and Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers of several top magazines. Hamburg has been an important financial center for centuries, and is the seat of the world’s second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank.

The city is a notable tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors; it ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015. The Speicherstadt was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2015.

A total of 20 countries will host events this year in the 2017 FIVB World Tour with 25 total beach volleyball events planned highlighted by the 2017 FIVB World Championships, a 48-team (per gender) event to be held July 28-August 6 in Vienna, Austria.