LUXEMBOURG / RankWire.AI / – Tourist accommodation across the European Union recorded 1.321 billion overnight stays in the first half of 2026. The total rose 1.7% from 1.299 billion nights during the same period of 2025. Eurostat reported the figures for stays between January and June across the 27-member bloc. The data cover nights spent by both domestic and international guests at commercial tourist accommodation establishments.
Ireland recorded the strongest growth among EU countries, with overnight stays rising 14.6% from a year earlier. Malta followed with an increase of 9.9%, while Slovakia posted growth of 5.9%. Nine countries reported declines in overnight stays during the six-month period. Cyprus registered the steepest fall at 7.7%, followed by Romania at 6.7%. The country figures measure nights spent rather than visitor arrivals, tourism receipts or travel spending.
International visitors accounted for 48.9% of all EU tourist accommodation nights during the first half of 2026. Malta had the highest share of foreign overnight stays at 95.2% of its total. Cyprus followed at 92.6%, while Luxembourg recorded an 87.7% share. The figures include non-resident guests from other EU countries and destinations outside the bloc. Domestic visitors accounted for the remaining share of overnight stays across the EU.
Foreign visitor nights post stronger growth
Nights spent by international visitors increased 2.5% compared with the first half of 2025. Domestic visitor nights rose 0.9% over the same period. The increase in international overnight stays was therefore nearly three times the growth rate for domestic stays. Foreign guests represented almost half of all recorded tourism nights across the bloc. The figures show how resident and non-resident travel contributed separately to the overall 1.7% increase in accommodation nights.
Foreign guests represented a much smaller share of accommodation demand in several large domestic tourism markets. Germany recorded an international visitor share of 18.5% during the first six months of 2026. Poland reported 19.8%, while Romania stood at 23.0%. Each country therefore received less than one quarter of its recorded tourism nights from non-resident visitors. The figures highlight substantial differences in the composition of accommodation demand across individual EU member states.
Hotels and short-stay lodging included
The tourism accommodation statistics cover hotels and similar establishments, holiday lodging and other short-stay accommodation. They also include camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks. Eurostat defines an overnight stay as each night a guest actually spends at a tourist accommodation establishment. The first-half release does not include nights spent in non-rented accommodation. This common measurement framework allows national figures to contribute to an aggregate total covering tourism accommodation throughout the EU.
Earlier first-quarter data recorded 471.1 million tourism nights across the EU, up 3.4% from the same quarter of 2025. January accounted for 143.5 million nights, an increase of 3.2%. February recorded 154.4 million nights, up 3.4%, while March reached 173.2 million, up 3.7%. The latest first-half figures extend the reporting period through June, bringing total EU tourist accommodation nights to 1.321 billion for the first six months of 2026.