Which European country has the most free-spending tourists?

Tourists from Luxembourg spend more than those from any other EU country, spending €183 per night on tourism trips, new data from Eurostat has revealed.

Tourists from Austria (€161) and Ireland (€143) are also big spenders on a per night basis, while those from Greece (€48), Poland (€52) and Czechia (€57) spent the least per night.

According to the data, Europeans spent a total of €553 billion on tourism trips in 2023 (including transport, accommodation, and other goods or services), which was 16.5% higher than in 2022, a year that saw the lasting effects of the pandemic.

This corresponds to a spend of €97.60 per night, on average, for trips that include at least one overnight stay. This is a 11.8% increase on 2022, when they spent an average of €87.30, the data showed.

Tourism trips across Europe

In 2023, EU residents embarked on 1.14 billion tourism trips involving at least one overnight stay, marking a 5.7% increase (equivalent to 61.6 million more trips) compared to 2022, according to Eurostat.

A significant proportion of these trips, totalling 1.029 billion (90% of the total), were made for personal reasons, while the remaining 110 million were for professional purposes. Both categories experienced growth from the previous year, with personal trips rising by 5.4% (an increase of 52 million) and business trips seeing a 9.3% increase (adding 9 million trips).

When looking at a longer timeframe, trips made for personal reasons increased by 11.7% (or 108 million) since 2013, whereas trips for professional reasons decreased by 6.3% (a decline of 7 million).

In addition, some 73% of the 1.14 billion tourism trips taken were domestic trips. Read more here.

Tourism trips taken by EU country, 2022

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