LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – In the first half of 2026, the European Union saw a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays recorded in tourism accommodation establishments. This represents a 1.7% rise from 1.299 billion nights during the same period in 2025. Eurostat provided these figures, which encompass the nights spent between January and June across all 27 member states. The data reflect both domestic and international visitors staying at commercial tourist accommodations.
Ireland experienced the most significant growth among EU nations, with overnight stays increasing by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta followed with a 9.9% increase, and Slovakia posted a growth of 5.9%. Meanwhile, nine countries reported a decline in overnight stays during the same period. Cyprus saw the sharpest decrease at 7.7%, with Romania close behind at 6.7%. These figures measure nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism revenues, or travel expenses.
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 at 95.2% of its total. Cyprus was next at 92.6%, followed by Luxembourg with 87.7%. These figures include non-resident guests from other EU countries as well as visitors from outside the bloc. The remaining share of overnight stays across the EU was contributed by domestic tourists.
Stronger growth observed in foreign visitor nights
Compared with the first half of 2025, nights spent by international visitors increased by 2.5%. During the same period, domestic visitor nights grew by 0.9%. This means international overnight stays grew nearly three times faster than domestic ones. Foreign visitors accounted for almost half of all tourism nights recorded across the EU. These figures illustrate how resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% increase in accommodation nights.
In several major domestic tourism markets, foreign guest demand was a smaller portion of total accommodation usage. Germany’s international visitor share was 18.5% during the first six months of 2026. Poland’s share stood at 19.8%, and Romania’s at 23.0%. Each of these countries received less than a quarter of its recorded tourism nights from non-resident visitors. Such data highlight notable differences in the composition of tourism accommodation demand across individual EU member states.
Accommodation types included in the statistics
The reported tourism accommodation statistics cover hotels and similar facilities, holiday rentals, and other short-term lodging options. They also include camping sites, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourism accommodation. The figures for the first half of the year do not encompass nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach enables national data to be aggregated into a comprehensive EU-wide total for tourism accommodation nights.
Earlier data for the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, reflecting a 3.4% increase compared to the same period in 2025. January recorded 143.5 million nights (up 3.2%), February had 154.4 million (up 3.4%), and March reached 173.2 million (up 3.7%). The latest first-half figures extend this period through June, culminating in a total of 1.321 billion tourist accommodation nights for the initial six months of 2026.