In December 2022, EU residents made an estimated 92 million tourism trips, representing 8.6% of all the trips made throughout that year. Of these, 73 million were domestic travels, accounting for 9.0% of the total domestic trips made in 2022. An additional 19 million trips were made abroad, representing 7.1% of the total foreign trips.
The enduring tradition of favouring domestic trips during the winter holidays and Christmas season causes a visible peak in somewhat inactive winter months. In December 2022, the number of domestic trips was almost 4 times higher than the number of foreign trips (in the other months of the year, the number of domestic trips was on average 3 times higher than the number of foreign trips).
Source dataset: tour_dem_ttmd
The boost in domestic trips during the end-of-year period can be attributed to people visiting friends and relatives. This was the purpose reported for more than half of the domestic trips in December (whereas in the other months of the year, this purpose accounted for around 1 in 3 tourism trips).
Romania, Bulgaria and Malta – highest December peaks
Looking at national data, residents of Romania stand out with most 2022 travels concentrated in December – 17.1%. Residents of Bulgaria (12.5%) and Malta (11.8%) followed. In contrast, trips during December accounted for 5.2% of the total trips made by residents of Greece, 6% of trips made by residents of Lithuania, and 6.4% of trips made by residents of Sweden.
Source dataset: tour_dem_ttmd