Tourism statistics - annual results for the accommodation sector

Data extracted in September 2025.

Planned article update: October 2026.

Highlights

Nights spent in EU tourist accommodation in 2024: up by 2.7% compared with 2023 and for the first time exceeding 3 billion nights.

In 2024, tourists from European countries accounted for 5 out of 6 nights spent by international guests in EU tourist accommodation.

This publication focuses on developments in the tourist accommodation sector in the European Union.

The article discusses the accommodation sector in 2024, based on annual data sent to Eurostat by the national statistical authorities. More recent data, based on monthly datasets is available in the article Tourism statistics - nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments.

Nights spent in EU tourist accommodation in 2024: up 2.7% compared with 2023, exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels by 5.1%.

Over the period 2009-2019, the number of nights spent in EU tourist accommodation establishments grew by 40%. In particular, there were significant increases in the number of nights spent by international guests (53%) while the number of nights spent by residents during domestic trips increased by 30%. In 2020, tourism was among the most affected sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic with a sharp drop of 51% in the number of nights spent compared with 2019. In 2021 there were clear signs of recovery, with 29% more nights spent in EU tourist accommodation compared with 2020, while the upward trend continued in 2022, with 50% more nights spent compared with 2021 (see Figure 1). In 2023, the growth in tourism continued, recording 6.8% more nights spent in tourism accommodation compared with 2022 and surpassing for the first time the pre-pandemic levels. In 2024, the increase continued (2.7%), although at a lower rate than the previous year. Still, an extra 79 million nights were observed in 2024, corresponding to 215 000 extra overnight stays each day of the year compared with an average day of the previous year.

Figure 1: Trends in nights spent in EU tourist accommodation establishments, 2009-2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat)

The biggest contributors to the 3 billion nights spent recorded in the EU were Spain (505 million nights spent), Italy, France and Germany (each recording more than 400 million nights in 2024). Jointly, these 4 countries accounted for more than 6 out of 10 nights spent in the EU.

Looking at the distribution by type of accommodation, hotels and similar accommodation were the most popular (62.8%), followed by holiday and other short-stay accommodation such as rented apartments (23.7%) and camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks (13.5%). However, there were significant regional differences: in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta hotels covered more than 90% of the entire market for rented accommodation. The share of holiday homes in the number of nights spent was over 40% in Croatia, Belgium and Lithuania. While the highest shares for campsites were observed in Luxembourg, France and Denmark, with more than 30% of total nights spent.

Table 1: Nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

The increase at EU level compared with 2023 reflected positive trends in almost all EU countries. Cyprus, Malta, Latvia, Luxembourg and Poland reported the highest increases of more than 5% compared with 2023 (see Figure 2). France and Finland stated slightly fewer nights than the previous year (-0,6%,-0,7%). Comparing, however, with the pre-COVID-19 figures, Latvia and Slovakia still had the widest gap to bridge, with the number nights spent still around 15% below 2019 levels. On the other hand, Ireland (27.9%), the Netherlands (17.7%), Luxembourg (16.4%) and Denmark (16.0%) showed the largest growth compared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 2: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, EU, 2024 compared with 2023 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

All 3 types of tourist accommodation showed increases for 2024 compared with 2023. The number of nights spent in hotels increased by 3.0%. Nights spent in holiday and other short-stay accommodation and nights spent at campsites increased by 3.1% and 0.4% respectively in 2024 compared with 2023, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, by type of establishment, EU, 2024 compared with 2023 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

Taking into account the population of the country (tourism intensity), Croatia (with 24.2 nights), Malta (with 20.1 nights) and Cyprus (with 18.5 nights) recorded the highest numbers of nights spent per inhabitant over the year 2024 (see vertical columns in Figure 3). In the EU, an average of 6.7 guest nights per year were recorded in relation to the overall population of 449.3 million EU residents in 2024, which is slightly higher than 5 years earlier in 2019 when tourism intensity at EU level was 6.4 nights spent per inhabitant (see square markers in Figure 3).

Figure 3: Tourism intensity, nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments per inhabitant, EU, 2024 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim) (demo_pjan)

Malta recorded the highest increase in nights spent by international guests in 2024 (15.2% compared with 2023)

The outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 caused a shift towards domestic tourism. In 2024 compared with 2019, nights spent by international guests increased by 6.8%, while nights spent by domestic tourists increased by 3.6% (see Table 3). The share of nights spent by international guests in EU tourist accommodation dropped from 47.3% in 2019 to 29.0% in 2020, then in 2021 this share increased to 32.0% and further to 44.0% in 2022. In 2023 it recorded a close value to pre-pandemic levels, 46.8% of total nights, and in 2024 it exceeded that (48.1%).

Table 3: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, by origin of the guest, EU, 2024 compared with 2023 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

In 2024 compared with 2023, nights spent by international guests in EU tourist accommodation increased by 5.5%, reflected in almost all EU countries. In 2024, Malta recorded the highest increase in nights spent by international guests (+15.2% compared with 2023), closely followed by Cyprus (+14.8%) . The lowest increases were reported by France (+1.6%) and Croatia (+0,8%), while there was a stagnation in Ireland (-0,1%). Figure 4 shows for each EU country, how close overnight stays by international tourists in 2024 came to 2019 levels, the year before the pandemic. 15 EU countries exceeded 2019 levels for international guests, while international tourists in Latvia in 2023 spent less than 75% of the international nights recorded in 2019.

Figure 4: Nights spent by international guests in tourist accommodation, EU, 2024 and 2023 compared with 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

In 2024, the number of domestic nights spent in EU tourist accommodation grew very modestly (0,2%) compared with 2023. Cyprus (11.8%), Croatia (7.5%) and Ireland (6.5%) recorded the largest increases in domestic nights, while 11 EU countries reported drops. Given the fact that domestic tourism recovered faster than international tourism, nights spent by domestic guests in the EU in 2024 increased to reach 2019 levels (3.6%). Figure 5 shows that in 23 EU countries, domestic nights recovered completely in 2024 and even surpassed 2019 levels, while in all other countries domestic nights are much closer to 2019 levels compared with international nights.

Figure 5: Nights spent by domestic guests in tourist accommodation, EU, 2024 and 2023 compared with 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_nim)

Paris, the most visited city in the EU

From reference year 2020 on, Eurostat publishes data on nights spent in selected cities, including all capitals and cities with a minimum population of 200 000 inhabitants as well as some other cities that are of particular importance for tourism. In 2024, around 74 million nights were spent in Paris, the most visited city in the EU, followed by Roma and Berlin with respectively 42 and 30 million nights.

Table 4 shows for each EU country the top 3 cities in terms of nights spent in tourist accommodation. With the exception of Bulgaria, Spain, Croatia and Cyprus the most visited city was the capital city of each country. In Latvia and Malta, the capital city accounted for more than half of the total nights spent in the country. Very large shares of the capital cities were also recorded in Estonia (49.8%), Hungary (34.5%), Luxembourg (34.3%), Denmark (32.6%) and Czechia (31.9%).

Table 4: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, top 3 cities in terms of nights spent, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninc) (tour_occ_nim)

In 2024, tourists from European countries accounted for 5 out of 6 nights spent by international guests in EU tourist accommodation

In 2024, more than half (52%) of nights in tourist accommodation were spent by domestic tourists, travelling inside their own country, while 30% were spent by international visitors from other EU countries and 18% by non-EU guests (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Nights spent in EU tourist accommodation by origin of the guest, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninraw)

The majority of the 1.5 billion nights spent by international guests were by tourists coming from other EU countries (62%), while 21% were spent by tourists coming from other European countries. Only 16% of non-resident nights were spent by tourists from other regions of the world (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Nights spent by international guests in EU tourist accommodation, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninraw)

EU countries display varying patterns in terms of total nights spent by origin of the guest. Romania, Poland, and Germany saw a significant majority of domestic tourists, with over 80% of tourism accommodation nights accounted for by local visitors. Similarly, Sweden, Finland, France, Slovakia, Lithuania and Denmark also show high shares of domestic guests, each exceeding 60%. In contrast, a substantial portion of nights are attributed to international tourists from other EU countries in Luxembourg (74.5%), Croatia (73.8%), Malta (58.5%), Austria (58.0%) and Slovenia (55.4%). Cyprus (57.1%) record notably a high percentage of international tourists from outside the EU (see Table 5).

Table 5: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_ninat) (tour_occ_ninraw)

More than 29 million bed places in EU tourist accommodation

In 2024, the EU could offer 29.7 million bed places to accommodate tourists (+0.5 million compared with 2023), spread over 681 000 establishments (+44.500 compared with 2023). In terms of bed places, Italy (with 5.5 million bed places) and France (with 5.1 million bed places) accounted for more than one-third of total available capacity (see Table 6).

Table 6: Capacity of tourist accommodation establishments by NACE group, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_cap_nat)

The comparability and completeness of this data is affected by the fact that countries can apply data collection thresholds. In many countries, establishments having fewer than 10 bed places are not covered by these statistics, but the threshold applied is not identical across the European Union. This means that the 29.7 million bed places mentioned above is a modest estimate; the actual number of bed places including those offered in the smallest establishments may be higher than the published estimate.

For countries where a breakdown by size class is available, 56.7% of hotels and similar accommodation establishments had fewer than 25 bedrooms, 34.3% had between 25 and 99, and 9.1% were large establishments with a capacity of 100 or more bedrooms (see Table 7).

Table 7: Hotels and similar accommodation establishments by size class, EU, 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_cap_nats)

Average occupancy rate of bed places in hotels was 49% in 2024

Comparing the capacity data in terms of available beds or rooms with the occupancy data in terms of nights spent gives an indicator of the occupancy rates. At EU level, the net occupancy rate of bed places in hotels was 49% in 2024. The highest occupancy rates were recorded in Cyprus (72%), Malta (66%) and Spain (62%), while the lowest were in Czechia (37%), Romania (35%) and Slovakia (34%), as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Net occupancy rates of bed places in hotels and similar accommodation, EU, 2024 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_anor)

Source data for tables and graphs

Download Excel file

Data sources

For the short-term trends in the nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in the European Union (EU), see the quarterly updated article Tourism statistics - nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments.

Context

The EU is a major tourist destination, with six Member States among the world's top ten 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. 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.

Footnotes

[UN Tourism] ↑

Explore further

Visualisation

Regional Statistics Illustrated - select statistical domain 'Tourism' (top right)

Methodology

Capacity and occupancy of tourist accommodation establishments (ESMS metadata file — tour_occ_esms)

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):

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 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
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.

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

Selected datasets

Tourism (t_tour)

[1] [UN Tourism] ↑

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