What EU country saw the biggest increase in tourism nights in 2024?

Cyprus reported a 14.5% increase in nights spent in tourism accommodation establishments last year, the biggest year-on-year increase in the European Union, new data from Eurostat has revealed.

Other countries to report a high increase in tourism nights included Malta, which registered a 14.4% increase, and Latvia, which saw tourism nights rise by 7.4% compared to the previous year.

Two EU countries saw tourism nights decline, year-on-year – Finland, which registered a 0.7% decline, and France, which was down 0.6%. Marginal increases were recorded in Belgium and Sweden, of 0.3% each.

Overall, across the EU, the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments rose by 2.7% last year, to reach 3.02 billion.

Close to two-thirds (62.8%) of these nights were spent in hotels and similar accommodation, Eurostat‘s data showed. Close to a quarter (23.7%) were spent in holiday and other short-stay accommodation such as rented apartments, while 13.5% were spent in camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks.

Domestic and international travellers

More than half (51.9%, or 1.57 billion) of the nights spent across the EU were made by domestic guests from their respective counties, while the remaining 48.1% (or 1.45 billion) were made by international guests.

Tourists from other EU countries (61.6%) and other European countries (21.3%) accounted for the majority, with 16.4% of overnight stays made by people from other countries around the world.

Visitors from North America accounted for 7.5% of all international stays, ahead of Asia (4.9%), Central and South America (2.3%), Oceania (1.0%) and Africa (0.8%). Read more here.

Tourism Nights by EU Member State, 2024

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