In 2024, EU residents made 250 million trips within the bloc. Where did they go? Where did they stay? Euronews reports on this using the latest data from Eurostat.
The longest trips Europeans took were to Greece and Romania. Both countries exceeded the EU average: tourists spent an average of about nine nights there.
In contrast, in Estonia and Belgium, tourists spent the least amount of time — 3.1 and 3.6 nights, respectively.
"Such differences in trip duration are often related to transport accessibility and proximity to other countries," believes Euronews.
In particular, the price and distance to Greece, Spain, or Cyprus motivate tourists to stay longer. On the other hand, the proximity and accessibility of Belgium to the Netherlands and France make short visits of a few days more likely.
In Latvia, foreign tourists stay an average of five days. This is longer not only than in Estonia but also than in Lithuania, where tourists spent 4.7 days. At the same time, the distance to the three Baltic countries from other EU states is approximately the same. So it must be acknowledged — Latvia is more interesting for tourists than Lithuania and Estonia.
Tourists spent an average of 851 euros per trip: from 344 euros in Slovakia to 1476 euros in Cyprus. About one in four trips within the European Union took place in August (12.8%) and July (11.7%).
More than two-thirds of nights spent traveling in the EU are in rented tourist accommodation. In 39% of cases, this is hotels, in 25% — houses, villas, or apartments, in 7% — campsites.
Despite the fact that Europeans very often stay in short-term rental apartments, the European Commission plans to introduce restrictions on the rental of such housing in the near future to address the housing crisis.
The EU has identified short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and Expedia as one of the main reasons for the lack of affordable housing in Europe, but did not specify how strongly it intends to regulate them.
