Seasonality has always had a big impact on tourism. In 2021, the usual seasonal pattern for nights spent at EU tourist accommodation establishments came closer to the pre-pandemic patterns of 2019. This is after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the seasonal bias to become even more pronounced in 2020; less than 3% of the total annual nights were spent during April and May that year, while on the other hand, 24% of the total nights were spent in August, the peak month.
In 2020, the pandemic caused a more than 50% decline in both arrivals and nights spent at EU tourist accommodation establishments, compared with 2019. In 2021, despite increases of more than 25% compared with 2020, the numbers of arrivals (-42%) and nights spent (-37%) still did not reach 2019 levels.
Source dataset: tour_occ_nim
Despite the large concentration of arrivals and overnight stays during the summer months of 2020, the decline in absolute figures was remarkable compared with 2019, while there were clear signs of recovery in 2021.
During the two summer months of July and August, 782 million nights were spent in EU tourist accommodation establishments in 2021. This is up from 2020 (610 million nights; +28%), but down from the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (926 million nights; -16%).
Source dataset: tour_occ_nim
A breakdown by accommodation type reveals that in 2021, seasonal fluctuations were less prominent for hotels than for other tourist accommodations. It also indicates that the summer peak is partly related to higher seasonality for accommodation other than hotels and similar establishments, mainly campsites, which depend much more on the weather (and are often closed in winter).
In July and August 2021, the number of nights spent at campsites came very close to 2019 figures (95% of 2019 levels). On the other hand, hotels as well as holiday & other short-stay accommodation were further away from pre-pandemic levels (78% and 89% of 2019 levels, respectively).
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on seasonality in the tourist accommodation sector
- Statistics Explained article on tourism statistics - nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments
- Podcast episode on tourism during COVID-19
- Dedicated section to tourism
- Database on tourism
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