LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the first six months of 2026, the European Union experienced a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in tourist accommodations. This represents a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights recorded during the same period in 2025. Eurostat provided these figures for the January to June period across the bloc’s 27 member countries. The data encompasses nights spent at commercial tourist lodging by both domestic and international visitors.
Ireland led the growth among EU nations with a 14.6% rise in overnight stays compared to the previous year. Malta saw an increase of 9.9%, while Slovakia reported growth of 5.9%. Conversely, nine countries experienced a decline in overnight stays during this timeframe. Cyprus registered the largest drop at 7.7%, followed by Romania at 6.7%. It is important to note that these figures reflect nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism earnings, or travel expenditure.
International visitors accounted for 48.9% of all tourist accommodation nights in the EU during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays at 95.2%, followed by Cyprus with 92.6% and Luxembourg with 87.7%. These figures include non-residents from other EU countries and international destinations outside the bloc. Domestic visitors made up the remaining share of overnight stays across the EU.
Growth driven primarily by international overnight stays
Nights spent by foreign visitors rose by 2.5% compared to the first half of 2025, whereas nights by domestic visitors increased only 0.9% over the same period. This indicates that international overnight stays grew nearly three times faster than domestic stays. Foreign tourists accounted for nearly half of all recorded tourism nights across the EU. The data illustrates how resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% increase in nights spent in accommodation.
In several large domestic tourism markets, foreign guests represented a smaller share of accommodation demand. For example, Germany had an international visitor share of 18.5% during the first six months of 2026. Poland’s share was 19.8%, and Romania’s stood at 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than a quarter of their total recorded tourism nights from non-resident visitors. These figures underscore notable differences in how individual EU member states’ accommodation demand is composed.
Includes hotels and short-term lodgings
The statistics on tourism accommodation cover hotels, similar establishments, holiday rentals, and other short-term lodging options. They also include camping sites, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. According to Eurostat, an overnight stay is defined as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation. The data for the first half of the year excludes nights in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach enables national figures to contribute to a comprehensive total for tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data for the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, representing a 3.4% rise from the same quarter in 2025. January alone accounted for 143.5 million nights, up 3.2%, while February recorded 154.4 million nights, an increase of 3.4%. March reached 173.2 million nights, up 3.7%. The latest figures for the first half of 2026 extend this trend through June, culminating in a total of 1.321 billion nights in EU tourist accommodations for the period.