Tourism statistics – nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments

453 million tourism nights spent in the first quarter of 2023

In the first three months of 2024, 452.6 million nights were spent in EU tourist accommodation (see Table 1). This corresponds to 27.8 million more nights (+6.6 %) than those spent in the first quarter of last year. All EU countries with available data reported positive trends, compared with the first quarter of 2023. The highest increases were recorded in Luxembourg (+24.5 %), Cyprus (+21.4 %), Malta (+19.7 %) and Croatia (+19.7 %) (see Figure 1). In absolute figures, the largest contributions to the overall increase with 27.8 million nights were observed in Italy (+6.6 million), Germany (+6.5 million), Spain (+3.6 million), Austria (+2.2 million) and the Netherlands (+2.1 million), jointly accounting for more than three-quarters of the increase in the EU.

In January, February and March 2024, the number of nights spent exceeded the figures of the corresponding months in pre-pandemic year 2019. The number of nights spent in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 24.5 million (+5.7 %) compared with the first quarter of 2019.

Figure 1: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, 1st quarter 2024 compared with the 1st quarter in 2023 (% change)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_nim)

Double-digit increase of international tourism in the first quarter

Looking at the breakdown by origin of the guest, in the first quarter of 2024, compared with the first quarter of 2023, international tourism (+19.3 million nights, +10.5 %) contributed more to the overall increase of nights spent than domestic tourism (+8.5 million nights, +3.5 %) (see Table 2).

In the first quarter, international tourism increased particularly strongly, by more than 20 %, in Cyprus (+23.1 %), Croatia (+22.1 %), Malta (+21.4 %), Luxembourg (+21.1 %) and the Netherlands (+20.9 %) (see Figure 2). More than half of the international nights spent in the first quarter (111.0 million out of 203.0 million) were observed in Spain (49.2 million, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 international nights), Italy (31.3 million) and Austria (30.5 million). An increase in international tourism was also observed in all other EU members for which data is available.

In absolute terms, domestic tourism was the predominant contributor (249.6 million nights) to the 452.6 million nights spent in tourist accommodation across the EU in the first quarter. Between January and March, 60.6 million nights were spent in Germany by residents of that country (+9.9 % compared with the first quarter of 2023). France recorded 46.5 million nights spent by residents, a small decrease (-0.4 %). In six more EU countries (out of 24 with available data), the number of domestic tourism nights was lower in the first quarter of 2024 than in the same period in 2023.

Table 2 : Nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments, by origin of the guest, 1st quarter 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_nim)

Figure 2: Nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments, by origin of the guest, 1st quarter 2024 compared with 1st quarter in 2023 (% change)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_nim)

18 million more hotel nights in the first quarter

Two of the three types of tourist accommodation showed increases for the first quarter compared with the same period in 2023 (see Table 3). The segment of hotels and similar accommodation showed the highest increase in absolute terms, up by 18.5 million nights (+6.0 %). This segment accounted for 72.3 % of tourist accommodation. Nights spent at holiday and other-short stay accommodation (representing 24.9 % of the tourist accommodation market) increased by 11.2 %, the smaller segment of campsites decreased by 14.0 % (but in the winter months January, February and March, campsites only account for 2.8 % of all nights spent). An important part of the 12.6 million nights spent at campsites were recorded in Spain (4.8 million).

Table 3 : Nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments, by type of accommodation, 1st quarter 2024
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_nim)

Figure 3: Nights spent in tourist accommodation, by type of accommodation, 1st quarter 2024 compared with the 1st quarter in 2023 (% change)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_nim)

Data on tourism nights is included in the interactive European Statistical Recovery Dashboard, which contains monthly and quarterly indicators from a number of statistical areas relevant for tracking the economic and social recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, across countries and time. The dashboard is updated every month with the latest available data for each indicator.