EU tourism nights increased in second quarter of 2024

Brussels: In the second quarter of 2024, there were 780.1 million overnight stays in tourist accommodations across the EU, a slight increase of 0.2% compared with the same quarter of 2023. April recorded 193.6 million nights (-8.7% compared with April 2023), May 272.1 million (+7.9%) and June 314.5 million (-0.1%). Note that Easter fell in March in 2024 whereas in 2023 that popular tourism weekend was in April.

Foreign visitors (non-residents of the country, EU and non-EU) accounted for approximately half (49.0%) of all overnight stays in the second quarter of 2024, with large differences among EU countries. The biggest share of foreign overnight stays at the beginning of the year was recorded in Cyprus (94.8%), Malta (94.7%) and Croatia (91.0%).

This article marks World Tourism Day celebrated on 27 September.

In contrast, foreign guests accounted for less than one-fifth of overnight stays in Poland (18.2%), Germany (18.7%) and Romania (19.6%).

The rise in nights spent by foreign visitors in the second quarter of 2024 (+3.1% compared with the second quarter of 2023) was much more pronounced than the fall in domestic nights (-2.5%). The largest increases in overnight stays by foreign visitors were recorded in Luxembourg (+23.8%), Malta (+13.3%) and Romania (+10.5%). At the other end of the range, the Netherlands (-5.7%), Austria (-4.3%) and Belgium (-1.9%) experienced the biggest decline.