In 2018, Spain (467 million nights, -0.9% compared with 2017) retained its lead, ahead of France (444 mn,+2.4%), Italy (429 mn, +1.9%) and Germany (419 mn, +4.3%), while Croatia recorded an increase of 3.9% with 89.4 million overnights.
These early estimates, which include nights spent whether for business or leisure, come from an article issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU, notably driven by the rise in the nights spent by non-residents of the country visited.
The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in 2018 grew in nearly all Member States, with the largest increases being observed in Latvia (+8.3%), Lithuania (+7.7%) and Malta (+6.5%), followed by Poland (+5.8%), Romania (+5.5%) and Belgium (+5.4%). In contrast, decreases were registered in Luxembourg (-4.3%), Ireland (-1.5%) and Spain (-0.9%).
In the EU, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation by residents grew slightly faster (+2.3%) between 2017 and 2018 than those spent by non-residents (+2.0%).
Almost every EU Member State recorded an increase in the number of tourism nights spent by residents, with the exception of Greece (-7.3%) and Luxembourg (-4.5%).
The highest increases were registered in Cyprus (+10.6%), Malta (+8.6%) and Croatia (+8.4%). Similarly,
the number of tourism nights spent by non-residents rose in nearly all Member States, except Ireland (-7.4%), Luxembourg (-4.2%), Spain (-1.6%) and Portugal (-0.1%). The largest increases in 2018 were registered in Latvia (+10.1%), Belgium (+8.9%) and Lithuania (+8.0%).
Within the EU Member States, the largest shares of nights spent by residents were recorded in Romania (81% of total nights spent), Poland (80%), Germany (79%) and Sweden (74%). In contrast, the largest shares of nights spent by non-residents were registered in Malta (96% of total nights spent), Cyprus (95%) and Croatia (93%).