(CN) — Overnight stays are on the rise in the European Union, per data published Friday by Eurostat, which examined nights spent at hotels and other accommodations by foreign and domestic guests.
The 452.6 million nights spent at hotels, campgrounds and the like during the first three months of 2024 represents a 6.6% increase over the tourism figures reported for 2023’s first quarter, Eurostat added.
The bulk of this increase was carried by foreign visitors, whose overnight stays increased by 10.5% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same timeframe last year.
As a fraction of all hotel nights, foreign visitors accounted for about 45% of the stays, said the commission. Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Austria carried the greatest share of foreigners’ stays — compare that to Poland, Romania and Germany, where domestic guests contributed four-fifths of hotel nights.
Still, overall, domestic tourism was the plain majority of accommodations: locals spent 249.6 million of the 452.6 million nights across the EU during this timeframe, or 55.1%.
Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta were also the three fastest-growing countries in terms of overall stays, regardless of guests’ origin. In absolute terms, though, the greatest contributors to all nights spent in Europe were Italy (6.6 million), Germany (6.5 million) and Spain (3.6 million).
These January, February and March 2024 hotel stays outnumbered the figures for Q1 2019, marking a recovery from the pandemic’s yearslong devastation of tourism to and within the European continent.
Eurostat’s report did not include data from Ireland. Additionally, the data covers only nights spent in establishments intended for accommodation, such as hotels, campgrounds and RV parks; any nights spent in a non-rented accommodation were not taken into account in these figures.