Overnight stays in tourist accommodation in EU countries increased by 7% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023.
According to Eurostat data, in the first quarter of this year there were 452.6 million overnight stays in tourist accommodation through the Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and TripAdvisor platforms. The Commission has signed a cooperation agreement with these 4 platforms for the provision of data.
Overnight stays in Q1
January recorded 133.9 million (+3% compared to January 2023)
February 149.2 million (+6%)
March 169.5 million (+9%)
Domestic and inbound tourism
Stays in the first quarter by foreign visitors accounted for around 45% of the total, with large differences between EU countries.
The largest share of overnight stays by foreigners in the quarter was recorded in Malta (91%), Cyprus (87%), Luxembourg (82%) and Austria (78%).
By contrast, foreign visitors accounted for only one fifth of overnight stays in Poland, Romania and Germany (19%, 20% and 20%, respectively).
In Greece, the percentage of overnight stays by foreigners rose slightly above 40% in the first quarter.
It should be noted that the first quarter of 2024 was favored by the fact that Catholic Easter was on March 31st.
In the first quarter of 2024, the increase from foreign visitors (+11% compared to the first quarter of 2023) was much stronger than the increase from domestic travel (+4%).
The largest increases by foreign visitors were recorded in Cyprus (+23%), Croatia (+22%), Malta and Luxembourg (+21% each).
Conversely, the smallest increases were recorded in Lithuania, Poland and Greece (+3%).
In European hotels, 18 million more overnight stays were recorded in the first quarter of 2024, 6% more than a year earlier.
