EU Tourism Overnight Stays Rise 2.3% in H1 2025

Tourist accommodations across the European Union recorded 1.279 million overnight stays in the first half of 2025, marking a 2.3% increase compared with 1.249 million in the same period of 2024, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

Malta (12.7%), Latvia (8.6%) and Poland (8.5%) reported the highest growth in overnight stays, while Ireland saw a decline of 3.5%. Germany (+0.2%), Sweden (+0.5%) and Belgium (+0.9%) reported modest increases.

Foreign visitors accounted for nearly half (48.0%) of all overnight stays in the EU during the first six months of the year. Malta (93.6%), Cyprus (93.1%) and Croatia (87.6%) recorded the highest shares of foreign overnight stays. In contrast, Germany (18.5%), Poland (19.2%) and Romania (20.2%) had the lowest.

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Nights spent by foreign visitors grew 3.1% compared with the first half of 2024, slightly higher than the 1.7% growth in domestic nights. Malta (+13.0%), Latvia (+12.8%) and Finland (+12.3%) led the increase in foreign overnight stays. Ireland (-6.1%), Sweden (-5.3%) and Germany (-2.9%) were the only countries to see a decline.

The figures were released by Eurostat on 27th September to mark World Tourism Day, highlighting the continuing recovery and growth of tourism across the EU despite varying performance across member states.

Eurostat data indicate that while EU tourism is steadily recovering, the reliance on foreign visitors varies widely among countries, reflecting different travel patterns and regional tourism strategies.