LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – The European Union experienced a total of 1.321 billion overnight stays in the first half of 2026, marking a 1.7% increase from the 1.299 billion nights recorded during the same period in 2025. According to Eurostat, these figures encompass nights spent between January and June across all 27 member states, including both domestic and international visitors at commercial tourist accommodations.
Ireland led the growth chart among EU nations, with overnight stays surging by 14.6% compared to the previous year. Malta followed with a 9.9% rise, and Slovakia reported a 5.9% increase. Conversely, nine countries saw declines in overnight stays over the six months; Cyprus experienced the sharpest drop at 7.7%, with Romania at 6.7%. It is important to note that these figures reflect nights spent rather than visitor entries, tourism revenue, or travel expenditures.
International visitors made up 48.9% of all overnight stays in EU tourist accommodations during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest proportion of foreign overnight stays at 95.2%, with Cyprus close behind at 92.6%, and Luxembourg recording 87.7%. These figures include non-residents from other EU nations and outside the bloc. Domestic travelers accounted for the remaining share of overnight stays across the EU.
International overnight stays outpace domestic growth
Compared to the first half of 2025, international visitor nights increased by 2.5%, whereas nights by domestic visitors grew by only 0.9%. This indicates that growth in international overnight stays was nearly three times that of domestic stays. Almost half of the tourism nights recorded across the EU involved foreign visitors, illustrating how resident and non-resident travel separately contributed to the overall 1.7% rise in accommodation nights.
In several major domestic tourism markets, foreign visitor demand accounted for a smaller share of total overnight stays. Germany recorded an international visitor share of 18.5% during the first six months of 2026. Poland reported 19.8%, and Romania stood at 23.0%. In each case, less than a quarter of tourism nights were from non-resident visitors, highlighting notable differences in accommodation demand across individual EU member states.
Coverage includes hotels and short-term lodgings
The tourism accommodation data encompass hotels and similar facilities, holiday rentals, and other short-stay lodging options, including camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks, and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest spends at a tourist accommodation. The report for the first half of the year excludes nights spent in non-rented accommodations. This standardized measurement approach allows national data to be combined into a comprehensive total for EU tourism accommodation nights.
Earlier data from the first quarter indicated 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, representing a 3.4% rise compared to the same quarter of 2025. In January, nights totaled 143.5 million, up 3.2%; February saw 154.4 million nights, an increase of 3.4%; and March reached 173.2 million, growing by 3.7%. The latest first-half figures extend the reporting through June, bringing the total to 1.321 billion tourist accommodation nights for the initial six months of 2026.