LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – The European Union saw a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in the first six months of 2026. This figure represents a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights reported in the same period of 2025. Eurostat provided the data for stays between January and June across the bloc’s 27 member states. These numbers include nights spent by both residents and non-residents at commercial tourism accommodation facilities.
Ireland experienced the most significant growth among EU nations, with overnight stays rising by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta followed with a 9.9% increase, while Slovakia saw a rise of 5.9%. Nine countries, however, reported a decrease in overnight stays during this period. Cyprus experienced the largest decline at 7.7%, with Romania close behind at 6.7%. It is important to note that these figures measure nights spent, not visitor arrivals, tourism income, 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, with 95.2% of its total. Cyprus followed at 92.6%, and Luxembourg recorded an 87.7% share. These figures encompass non-resident guests from other EU nations as well as visitors from outside the bloc. The remaining share of overnight stays across the EU was made up of domestic visitors.
International visitor nights show stronger growth
Nights spent by international travelers increased by 2.5% compared to the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, domestic visitor nights rose by only 0.9% during the same period. The growth rate for international overnight stays was nearly three times that of domestic stays. Foreign guests accounted for almost half of all tourism nights recorded across the EU. These figures demonstrate how both resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several key domestic tourism markets, foreign visitors made up a smaller portion of accommodation demand. Germany recorded 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%. Consequently, each country received less than one quarter of its recorded tourism nights from non-residents. The data reveal significant variations in how accommodation demand is structured across individual EU member states.
Hotels and short-term lodgings included in statistics
Tourism accommodation data cover hotels and similar establishments, holiday rentals, and other short-stay lodgings. The statistics also include camping sites, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation. The first-half figures exclude nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach allows national data to be aggregated into an overall total for tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data for the first quarter recorded 471.1 million tourism nights within the EU, representing a 3.4% increase from the same quarter in 2025. January accounted for 143.5 million nights, up 3.2%. February totaled 154.4 million nights, an increase of 3.4%, while March reached 173.2 million nights, up 3.7%. Extending this to the first half of the year, the total EU tourism nights amounted to 1.321 billion through June 2026, reflecting steady growth in the tourism sector.
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