Seasonality in tourism demand

Data extracted in January 2025.

Planned article update: December 2025.

Highlights

In 2023, one-third of total tourism nights of Europeans were spent in July or August.

Tourists aged 65 and over had a less pronounced seasonal pattern and were more likely to travel in spring and autumn.

Domestic trips peak in summer and around Christmas.

Monthly share of trips and nights spent by EU residents, 2023

This article is part of the Eurostat online publication Tourism trips of Europeans, which provides statistics on tourism demand in the European Union (EU) and EFTA countries.

The article focuses on the seasonal pattern of tourism demand in the European Union (EU): trips made by EU residents and the number of nights spent on those trips (data on same-day visits is not available). Tourism demand includes all trips made, regardless of whether they were spent in tourist accommodation (such as hotels or campsites) or in less formal and often unpaid types of accommodation (such as owned dwellings or accommodation provided for free by friends or relatives).

This analysis from the point of view of the demand side complements 2 other articles on seasonality, in which the seasonal bias in the tourist accommodation sector is discussed (see articles Seasonality in the tourist accommodation sector and Seasonality at regional level).

One in 4 trips of EU residents made in July or August

In 2023, tourism demand of EU residents was concentrated in Q3, mainly in August followed by July, when respectively 12.5% and 11.5% of the entire year's trips were made (see Figure 1). The number of trips in the peak month (August) was 2.4 times higher than the number of trips in the lowest month (January). Around 275 million tourism trips started in July or in August, meaning that on an average day in these months, 4.4 million Europeans were packing to leave on a trip.

Considering that the main (longest) trip in the year is often taken in summer, the seasonal pattern was even more pronounced when looking at the number of nights spent. EU residents spent 1 in 3 nights away in these 2 months, July (16.2%) and August (16.7%). The number of nights spent in the peak month (August) was 3.9 times higher than the number of nights spent in the lowest month (January).

Figure 1: Monthly share of trips and nights spent by EU residents, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd) (tour_dem_tnmd)

Long trips: the seasonal pattern more pronounced than for short trips

In August 2023, EU residents made 87 million long trips of at least 4 overnight stays. This represents 18% of all long trips made through the entire year. Looking at the summer season from June to September, more than 50% of all long trips in 2023 were made during these 4 months (see Figure 2).

The distribution of short trips over the 12 months was more evenly spread. June was the most popular month for trips between 1 and 3 overnight stays, followed by December.

Figure 2: Trips of EU residents by month of departure and duration, 2023 (millions)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Summer and Christmas peaks more significant for domestic trips

In 2023, EU residents made 834 million trips inside their own country (domestic trips) and 310 million trips abroad. The spread over the 12 months of the year is relatively comparable for domestic and foreign trips (see Figure 3) although the summer and Christmas peaks are more pronounced for the domestic ones.

The number of domestic and foreign trips made during the peak month (August) were respectively 2.2 and 2.9 times higher than those made in the lowest month (January).

Figure 3: Trips of EU residents by month of departure and destination, 2023 (millions)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Business trips partly compensate for the lowest periods of personal trips

On average over the year, business trips represented just under 10% of all trips made by EU residents. As shown in Figure 4, this share ranged from 17% in November to 4% in July and August.

Business trips showed a substantially different distribution over the year compared with personal trips, with peaks in June and September (see Figure 5), the months just before and after the main holiday season. The monthly variation ranged from 7.3 million business trips in December to over 12.9 million business trips in September.

Figure 4: Share of professional trips of EU residents by month of departure, 2023 (%)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Figure 5: Distribution over the year of EU residents' trips by purpose of the trip, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Europeans spend more than one-third of their tourism nights in July or August

Looking at national data, July or August were the most popular months for going on holidays for residents of all but 3 EU countries: Germany (June), Lithuania (September) and Romania (December) (see Table 1 and Figure 6). At EU level, 1 in 8 trips were concentrated in just 1 month (August). This peak was even more pronounced in 10 EU countries, with Greece in the top, where the residents preferred August for 32% of their trips, followed by Bulgaria (21%) and Italy (20%).

Table 1: Distribution over the year of EU residents' trips of at least 1 overnight stay, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Figure 6: Peak month for EU residents' trips, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd)

Seasonality can also be evaluated by looking at the ratio of the number of trips made during the peak month by those made during the lowest month (see Figure 7). In 2023, Greece came on top with the number of trips in August, 17 times higher than in January (the lowest month). The lowest seasonality was found in France, Estonia and Malta, where this ratio was only 2.1.

When taking into account the duration (nights spent) rather than the number of trips, seasonality was more pronounced: the peak month for tourism nights of residents of all EU countries was either July or August (see also Table 2 and Figure 8).

Figure 7: Ratio of the peak month by the lowest month, trips and nights spent by EU residents, 2023
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_tnmd) (tour_dem_ttmd)

Figure 8: Peak month for tourism nights spent by EU residents, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_tnmd)

Table 2: Distribution over the year of EU residents' tourism nights, 2023 (% share on the 12 months)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_tnmd)

During the 2 summer months of July and August, EU residents spent one-third of all tourism nights spent in 2023. For the Greek tourists this share was 60%, followed by Italians (51%), Czech and Belgians (41%).

By dividing the number of nights spent by the number of trips that were made each month, the average length of stay of the trips is calculated. In 2023, EU residents made the longest trips (7.0 nights on average) in July, followed by August with 6.7 nights on average (see Table 3).

Table 3: Average length of stay for EU residents' trips by month of departure, 2023 (nights)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_ttmd) (tour_dem_tnmd)

People aged 65 years and over spent more than 1 in 4 EU residents' tourism nights in the months in between the bottom and peak season

Looking at the age of the tourist, 22% of all tourism nights in 2023 were spent by Europeans aged 65 years and over. Compared with the seasonal pattern of nights spent by the other age groups, these nights were more evenly spread throughout the year. The July and August peak was a bit less pronounced, representing 27% of the entire year's tourism nights, while for the other age groups this share was on average 35% (see Figure 9). People aged 65 years and over were more likely to travel during the shoulder season (March to June and September to November, i.e. the months in between the bottom and peak season).

Figure 9: Tourism nights spent by EU residents by month of departure and age group, 2023 (millions)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_tnage) (tour_dem_tnmd)

At least 20% of all the nights spent in January, March, April, May, June, September, October and November were spent by older tourists aged 65 years and over, with May and September reaching 27% and 29% respectively(see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Share of tourism nights spent by EU residents by month of departure and age group, 2023 (%)
Source: Eurostat (tour_dem_tnage) (tour_dem_tnmd)

Source data for tables and graphs

Seasonality Demand 2023

Data sources

Collection of annual data on trips of EU residents

The collection consists of harmonised data collected by the EU countries in the frame of the Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism.

The scope of observation for data on tourism trips are all tourism trips with at least 1 overnight stay, made by the resident population aged 15 and over. It includes trips made for private or professional purpose, outside the usual environment.

Context

The EU is a major tourist destination, with 6 EU countries among the world's top 10 destinations for holidaymakers, according to UN Tourism^[1] data. Tourism is an important activity in the EU which contributes to employment and economic growth, as well as to the development of rural, peripheral or less-developed areas. Tourism is estimated to account for 4.5% to the EU's gross value added. These characteristics drive the demand for reliable and harmonised statistics on this activity, as well as within the wider context of regional policy and sustainable development policy areas.

Notes

↑ UN Tourism

Explore further

Database

Tourism (tour), see "Trips of EU residents - annual data".

Thematic section

Tourism statistics

Publications

Recent Eurostat publications on tourism

Selected datasets

Tourism (t_tour), see: "Annual data on trips of EU residents (t_tour_dem)".

Methodology

Trips of EU residents - annual data (ESMS metadata file — tour_dem_esms)

External links

Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism (Communication from the European Commission, October 2007)
European Commission - Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs - Tourism

Legislation

With 2012 as reference year:

Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of 6 July 2011 concerning European statistics on tourism and repealing Council Directive 95/57/EC. (Summary)
Regulation (EU) No 1051/2011 of 20 October 2011 implementing Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 concerning European statistics on tourism, as regards the structure of the quality reports and the transmission of the data.

Previous legal acts (concerning reference periods before 2012):

Directive 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
Commission Decision 1999/35/CE of 9 December 1998 on the procedures for implementing Council Directive 95/57/EC on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
Commission Decision 2004/883/CE of 10 December 2004 adjusting the Annex to Council Directive 95/57/EC on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism as regards country lists.
Directive 2006/110/EC of 20 November 2006 adapting Directives 95/57/EC and 2001/109/EC in the field of statistics, by reason of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania.

[1] UN Tourism

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