LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the initial half 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 months of January through June across all 27 member states. The data encompasses nights spent by both domestic and international visitors at commercial tourist lodging facilities.
Ireland showed 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, and Slovakia reported a 5.9% growth. Conversely, nine countries experienced a decline in overnight stays over the six-month span. Cyprus had the sharpest decrease at 7.7%, with Romania close behind at 6.7%. These figures measure the number of nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism revenue, or travel expenditure.
International visitors accounted for 48.9% of all tourist accommodation nights in the EU during the first half of 2026. Malta’s share of foreign overnight stays was the highest at 95.2%, while Cyprus followed with 92.6%. Luxembourg recorded an 87.7% share. These figures include non-resident guests from other EU countries and locations outside the bloc. The remaining share of overnight stays was attributed to domestic visitors across the EU.
International visitor nights demonstrate stronger growth
Overnight stays by foreign visitors increased by 2.5% compared to the first half of 2025, while domestic visitor nights saw a rise of just 0.9%. The growth rate for international nights was nearly three times that of domestic stays, indicating a significant contribution from foreign tourists. Foreign visitors accounted for nearly half of all recorded tourism nights across the bloc, showing how both resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the 1.7% overall increase in accommodation nights.
In several large domestic tourism markets, foreign visitor demand was relatively small. 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 was 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than a quarter of their tourism nights from non-resident travelers. These figures highlight notable differences in the composition of accommodation demand among individual EU member states.
Hotels, holiday rentals, and short-term accommodations included
The tourism accommodation statistics encompass hotels, similar lodging establishments, holiday rentals, and other short-stay accommodations. They also account for camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation facility. The data for the first half of the year excludes nights spent in non-rented lodging. This common measurement framework ensures that national figures can be aggregated to provide a comprehensive overview of tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data from the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights in the EU, reflecting a 3.4% rise from the same period in 2025. January contributed 143.5 million nights, up 3.2%. February recorded 154.4 million nights, increasing by 3.4%, and March reached 173.2 million, with a growth of 3.7%. The recent first-half figures extend the reporting period through June, bringing the total EU tourist accommodation nights for the first six months of 2026 to 1.321 billion.
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