EU tourism tops 3 billion nights in 2024

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reported that 2024 was the best tourism year on record for the EU, with the total number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments exceeding 3 billion.

This reflects a 2.2 per cent increase compared with 2023 (+65.4 million nights), following a final boost in the last quarter of the year, Eurostat noted.

Data show a substantial increase of 67.2 million nights spent by international guests (+4.9 per cent) in 2024, while nights spent by domestic guests slightly decreased (-0.1 per cent; -1.8 million).

Spain (500 million), Italy (458 million), France (451 million) and Germany (441 million) registered the highest number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments, representing 61.6 per cent of the total nights spent in the EU. Luxembourg (3.4 million), Latvia (4.7 million) and Estonia (6.6 million) registered the lowest number of nights.

Compared with 2023, in 2024, tourism nights rose the most in Malta (+14.4 per cent) and Latvia (+7.4 per cent). On the other hand, they decreased only in Luxembourg (-2.7 per cent), France (-0.6 per cent), Belgium (-0.2 per cent) and Sweden (-0.1 per cent).

The last quarter of 2024 was responsible for the soaring yearly results, with a 5.1 per cent increase in the total nights spent in the EU compared with Q4 2023.

Tourism nights increased in all EU countries in Q4 2024 compared with the same quarter of 2023, except in Ireland where it decreased slightly (-1.8 per cent). Among the other EU countries, the highest quarterly increases were registered in Malta (+16.5 per cent), Latvia (+12.5 per cent), Italy (+11.1 per cent) and Croatia (+10.2 per cent).