LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – During the first half of 2026, European Union hotels and similar accommodations logged a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays, marking a 1.7% increase from 1.299 billion nights in the same period of 2025. Eurostat released these figures, covering the nights spent from January to June within the 27-member bloc. The statistics encompass both domestic and international travelers’ overnight stays at commercial tourism establishments.
Ireland experienced the most significant growth among EU nations, with overnight stays rising by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta saw an increase of 9.9%, while Slovakia’s growth reached 5.9%. Conversely, nine countries reported declines over the six-month period, with Cyprus experiencing the steepest drop at 7.7%, followed by Romania at 6.7%. These numbers reflect 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, with Malta leading at 95.2% of its nights from foreign guests. Cyprus followed at 92.6%, and Luxembourg reported an 87.7% share. These figures include non-resident visitors from other EU countries as well as outside destinations. The remaining proportion of overnight stays was attributed to domestic travelers across the EU.
International nights grow faster than domestic
Overseas visitor nights increased by 2.5% compared to the same period last year, whereas nights by domestic travelers went up by only 0.9%. As a result, international overnight stays grew nearly three times faster than domestic ones, with foreign visitors contributing almost half of all tourism nights recorded across the bloc. These data illustrate the separate contributions of resident and non-resident travel to the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several major domestic tourism markets, foreign demand was notably lower—Germany’s international share was 18.5% during the first six months of 2026, Poland’s was 19.8%, and Romania’s stood at 23.0%. Each country received fewer than 25% of its tourism nights from non-residents, highlighting significant variations in how accommodation demand is distributed among EU member states.
Hotels, holiday lodgings, and other short-term stays included
The tourism accommodation data encompass hotels, similar establishments, holiday lodgings, and other short-stay options, along with camping sites, RV parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest actually spends at a tourist accommodation facility. The data for the first half of the year do not include nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This common measurement framework ensures that national figures can be aggregated to represent total tourism accommodation nights across the EU.
Earlier quarterly data indicated 471.1 million nights across the EU, showing a 3.4% rise from the same quarter of 2025. January accounted for 143.5 million nights (+3.2%), February for 154.4 million (+3.4%), and March reached 173.2 million (+3.7%). The latest figures for the first half of 2026 extend through June, bringing the total to 1.321 billion nights for that period.
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