LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – The European Union recorded a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in tourist accommodations during the first half of 2026. This figure represents a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights documented in the same period of 2025. Eurostat provided the data for stays between January and June across the 27 member states, including nights spent by both local and international visitors at commercial tourism facilities.
Ireland experienced the most notable growth among EU nations, with overnight stays rising by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta followed with a 9.9% increase, and Slovakia saw a growth of 5.9%. Conversely, nine countries reported declines in overnight stays within the six-month period. Cyprus experienced the most significant decrease, falling by 7.7%, while Romania saw a 6.7% decline. These figures measure nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism revenues, or travel expenditures.
International visitors accounted for 48.9% of all tourist accommodation nights in the EU during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays at 95.2% of its total, followed by Cyprus at 92.6%, and Luxembourg at 87.7%. These statistics include non-resident guests from other EU nations as well as those from outside the bloc. The remaining share of overnight stays was made up of domestic visitors across the EU.
International visitor nights experienced stronger growth
Compared to the same period in 2025, nights spent by international travelers increased by 2.5%, whereas nights by domestic visitors rose by only 0.9%. As a result, the growth in international overnight stays was nearly three times higher than that of domestic stays. Foreign visitors contributed to almost half of all tourism nights recorded across the EU. The data illustrates the separate contributions of resident and non-resident travel toward the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several major domestic tourism markets within the EU, international guest demand made up a smaller portion of total nights. Germany’s international visitor share was 18.5% in the first six months of 2026. Poland reported 19.8%, while Romania’s was 23.0%. This indicates that less than one quarter of each country’s recorded tourism nights came from non-resident visitors, highlighting notable differences in accommodation demand composition among individual member states.
Accommodation includes hotels and short-term rentals
The statistics on tourism accommodation cover hotels, similar establishments, holiday rentals, and other short-stay lodgings. They also include camping sites, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation facility. The first-half data excludes nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach enables national figures to be aggregated, providing an overall total of tourism accommodation nights across the EU.
Earlier data for the first quarter showed 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, representing a 3.4% increase from the same period in 2025. January accounted for 143.5 million nights with a 3.2% rise, February had 154.4 million nights, up 3.4%, and March reached 173.2 million, an increase of 3.7%. The latest figures extend the reporting period through June, bringing the total EU tourist accommodation nights for the first half of 2026 to 1.321 billion.