The European Union experienced its best year ever for tourism in 2024, the EU statistics office Eurostat announced on Tuesday. The number of nights spent at tourist accommodations exceeded 3 billion.
Last year saw 65.4 million additional overnight stays compared to 2023. This represents a 2.2% increase.
International tourism was the main driver of the soaring numbers. Overall, the number of overnight stays by international tourists increased by 67.2 million (+4.9%). Meanwhile, domestic overnight stays decreased slightly by 1.8 million (-0.1%).
Most overnight stays (63.1%) were booked at hotels across the EU, while campsites only accounted for 13.1%. Just under 24% of the nights spent at tourist accommodations involved holiday or short-stay accommodation, such as an Airbnb.
The sharp rise in overnight stays compared to 2023 was mostly due to stays booked for the last quarter of 2024, Eurostat explained. During this period, the total nights spent across the EU increased by 5.1% compared to the same time in 2023.
Overall, the Member States with the highest number of overnight stays were Spain (500 million), followed by Italy(458 million), France (451 million) and Germany (441 million). The four countries recorded 61.6% of the total nights spent at tourist accommodations across the EU.
The countries with the registered number of nights recorded were Luxembourg (3.4 million), Latvia (4.7 million) and Estonia (6.6 million).
The greatest increase in tourist stays was experienced by Malta (+14.4%) and Latvia (+7.4%). A decrease was recorded for four countries, namely Luxembourg (-2.7%), France (-0.6%), Belgium (-0.2%) and Sweden (-0.1%).
