LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the first six months of 2026, the European Union recorded a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in tourist accommodation. This figure marks a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights logged during the same period in 2025. Eurostat provided the data for the period between January and June across all 27 member states. The statistics encompass nights spent at commercial tourist accommodations by both domestic and international visitors.
Among EU nations, Ireland experienced the most notable growth, with overnight stays rising by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta followed with a 9.9% increase, while Slovakia saw a growth of 5.9%. Conversely, nine countries faced declines in overnight stays during this half-year. Cyprus experienced the steepest decrease at 7.7%, with Romania close behind at 6.7%. It is important to note that these figures represent nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism revenue, or travel expenditure.
International visitors accounted for 48.9% of all EU tourist accommodation nights during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays, accounting for 95.2% of its total. Cyprus followed with 92.6%, and Luxembourg recorded an 87.7% share. These figures include non-resident guests from other EU nations and destinations outside the bloc. The remaining overnight stays were attributed to domestic visitors across the EU.
Growth in international overnight stays outpaces domestic
Compared with the first half of 2025, international visitor nights grew by 2.5%, whereas nights spent by domestic travelers increased by 0.9%. This indicates that the growth rate for international overnight stays was nearly three times higher than that for domestic ones. Foreign visitors contributed to almost half of all recorded tourism nights across the EU. These figures illustrate how resident and non-resident travel individually impacted the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several large domestic tourism markets, foreign guest demand remained a smaller share of total accommodation usage. During the first six months of 2026, Germany’s share of international visitor nights stood at 18.5%. Poland registered 19.8%, while Romania’s was 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than a quarter of its total tourism nights from non-resident visitors. The data underscore significant variation in the composition of tourism demand across different EU member states.
Hotels, holiday rentals, and short-term lodging included
The tourism accommodation statistics encompass hotels, similar lodging facilities, holiday accommodations, and other short-stay options. They also cover 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 facility. The data for the first half of the year exclude nights in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach allows national figures to be combined into an overall total covering tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data from the first quarter indicated a total of 471.1 million tourism nights within the EU, representing a 3.4% rise from the same period in 2025. In January, nights numbered 143.5 million, up by 3.2%; February recorded 154.4 million nights, an increase of 3.4%; and March saw 173.2 million nights, growing by 3.7%. Extending through June, the latest first-half data sum up to 1.321 billion nights, reflecting the tourism accommodation activity in the EU for the initial half of 2026.
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