Tourism in the European Union has survived the Covid-19 pandemic: a record number of nights were spent in tourist accommodation such as hotels, holiday homes and campsites last year, figures from the Eurostat statistical agency showed.
The estimated number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in 2023 reached 2.92 billion.
In 2023, 171 million more nights were spent in tourist accommodation compared with 2022 (+6.3%). This was mainly due to an increase in international guests (+146 million), but also by domestic ones (+25 million). In terms of nights spent, tourism levels were 25% higher than ten years prior (2.33 billion nights in 2013).
Strikingly, the figures also exceeded those reported in the pre-Covid year 2019 by 1.6%, when 2.87 billion tourist overnight stays were counted – which was a record at the time.
Compared to 2022, nearly all EU Member States recorded an increase in 2023 (only Luxembourg recorded a small decrease of -0.1%). In Malta and Cyprus, growth even exceeded 20% and in Slovakia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Austria, Czechia, Portugal, Romania and Greece, it exceeded 10%.
In absolute numbers, the biggest increase in nights spent was observed in Germany (+32.8 million nights) and Spain (+32.3 million nights).
Tourists from outside the EU in particular found their way back to the bloc last year: they accounted for 46% of overnight stays (compared to less than 30% during the full crisis), meaning they are almost back to pre-pandemic levels (47%).
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Following three years with a significantly lower share of international tourists (respectively 29%, 32%, and 44% of all nights spent in 2020, 2021, and 2022), they accounted for 46% of the 2.87 billion nights spent in 2023.
The figures come from early estimates on tourism published by Eurostat on Tuesday, based on monthly January-October or November 2023 data, depending on each respective country.
