EU residents took holidays in other EU countries for almost a week long in 2024, with Greece and Romania recording the longest stays by visitors, according to the latest Eurostat data.
Both countries surpassed the EU mean with around nine nights on average.
By contrast, Estonia and Belgium were the destinations where tourists spent the shortest stays, with 3.1 and 3.6 nights, respectively.
These differences in trip duration across the European Union are often linked to transportation accessibility and proximity to other countries.
For instance, the price and distance to reach Greece, Spain, or Cyprus, along with their popularity as holiday destinations, motivate tourists to stay longer.
On the other hand, Belgium’s proximity and accessibility to the Netherlands and France make short visits of a few days more likely.
Visitors spent on average €851 per trip, ranging from €344 in Slovakia to €1,476 in Cyprus.
Around one in four trips in the EU took place during August (12.8%) and July (11.7%).
What is EU tourists’ favourite type of accommodation?
More than two-thirds of nights in the EU are spent in rented tourist accommodation.
Hotels or similar accommodation came out on top with 39%, while 25% of all intra-EU tourism nights were spent at a house, villa, or flat, and only 7% in campsites.
Despite short-term rentals being among the most used by EU tourists, the European Commission promised an upcoming piece of legislation on short-term rentals to tackle the housing crisis.
The EU has identified short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and Expedia as a major driver of Europe’s affordable housing shortage, but has not specified how far it intends to regulate them.
Local authorities have more power than national governments on this front, and in some cases, they have already acted.
EU residents made 250 million tourism trips of at least one overnight stay to destinations in other EU countries in 2024.
Just under half of those trips (44%) used a motor vehicle as their primary mode of transportation.
This was followed by plane, at 41%, train, at 7%, and bus, at 5%.
