LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the first six months of 2026, accommodation providers within the European Union logged a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays. This figure represents a 1.7% increase compared to the 1.299 billion nights recorded during the same period in 2025. According to Eurostat, these statistics encompass nights spent from January to June across the 27 member states, including stays by both domestic and international tourists at commercial tourist accommodations.
Among the EU countries, Ireland experienced the most significant growth, with overnight stays climbing 14.6% year-over-year. Malta’s increase was 9.9%, and Slovakia saw a rise of 5.9%. Conversely, nine nations reported a decline in overnight stays for the six-month period. Cyprus faced the steepest decline at 7.7%, while Romania’s drop was 6.7%. It is important to note that these figures reflect nights spent rather than visitor numbers, tourism revenue, or travel expenditure.
International visitors made up 48.9% of all EU tourist accommodation nights during the first half of 2026. Malta recorded the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays, accounting for 95.2% of its total. Cyprus followed with 92.6%, while Luxembourg had an 87.7% share. These data include non-resident guests from other EU nations and locations outside the bloc. The remaining portion of overnight stays across the EU was contributed by domestic visitors.
Growth in foreign visitor nights outpaces domestic
Compared to the first half of 2025, international visitor nights increased by 2.5%. During the same period, nights by domestic visitors rose by only 0.9%. The growth rate of international overnight stays was thus nearly three times that of domestic stays. Foreign tourists accounted for nearly half of all recorded tourism nights across the EU. These figures demonstrate how both resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several key domestic tourism markets, foreign visitors constituted a smaller share of demand. Germany’s international visitor share stood at 18.5% during the first six months of 2026. Poland’s was 19.8%, and Romania’s reached 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than 25% of their tourism nights from non-residents. The data underscore notable differences in the makeup of accommodation demand across individual EU member states.
Accommodation types included in the statistics
The tourism accommodation data encompass hotels, similar establishments, holiday lodgings, and other short-term accommodations. They also include camping sites, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest stays at a tourist accommodation. The first-half report excludes nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach enables national figures to be aggregated into a comprehensive total for tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data from the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, a 3.4% rise compared to the same quarter in 2025. In January, nights totaled 143.5 million, reflecting a 3.2% increase; February saw 154.4 million nights, up 3.4%, and March recorded 173.2 million nights, rising 3.7%. Extending this reporting period to include June, the latest figures bring total EU tourist accommodation nights for the first half of 2026 to 1.321 billion.