LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the first half of 2026, the European Union recorded a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in tourist accommodations. This marks a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights logged during the same period in 2025. Eurostat provided these figures for stays from January to June across all 27 member states. The data encompass overnight stays by both domestic and international visitors at commercial tourist lodging facilities.
Ireland experienced the most notable growth among EU nations, with overnight stays rising by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta’s increase was 9.9%, while Slovakia saw a growth of 5.9%. Conversely, nine countries reported a decline in overnight stays over the six-month period. Cyprus saw the largest decline at 7.7%, followed by Romania with a drop of 6.7%. These figures reflect nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism income, or travel expenditure.
International visitors made up 48.9% of all EU tourist accommodation nights during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays, accounting for 95.2% of its total. Cyprus followed with 92.6%, and Luxembourg recorded an 87.7% share. These figures include non-resident guests from other EU countries and destinations outside the bloc. The remaining overnight stays were contributed by domestic visitors across the EU.
Stronger growth observed in international visitor nights
Overseas visitor nights increased by 2.5% compared with the first half of 2025, whereas nights by domestic visitors grew by only 0.9% in the same timeframe. Consequently, international overnight stays grew nearly three times faster than those of domestic visitors. Foreign guests now account for almost half of all tourism nights recorded throughout the EU. The data illustrate how resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several major domestic tourism markets, foreign visitors represented a smaller share of the total accommodation demand. During the first six months of 2026, Germany’s international visitor share was 18.5%. Poland recorded 19.8%, with Romania at 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than a quarter of its tourism nights from non-residents. The data underline significant differences in the composition of tourism demand among individual EU member states.
Hotels, holiday rentals, and short-stay lodgings included
The tourism accommodation statistics encompass hotels, similar establishments, holiday rentals, and other short-term lodging options. They also cover camping sites, RV parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation facility. The first-half data exclude nights in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach ensures that national figures can be combined to form an overall estimate of tourism accommodation across the EU.
Earlier data for the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights within the EU, representing a 3.4% rise from the same quarter in 2025. January contributed 143.5 million nights (up 3.2%), February added 154.4 million nights (up 3.4%), and March reached 173.2 million nights (up 3.7%). The recent first-half data extend this overview through June, culminating in a total of 1.321 billion tourism nights for the first six months of 2026.