The number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation in the European Union (EU) increased by 1.7% in the first half of 2026 to 1.321 billion, compared with the same period last year, today the Community statistical office has been released.
© Shutterstock
01/09/2026
by
Lusa
Sleepy
“ Nthe first six months of 2026, there were 1,321 million sleeps in tourist accommodation throughout the European Union, an increase of 1.7% compared to the first half of 2025, when 1,299 million sleeps had been recorded,” Eurostat said today.
Between January and June of this year, EU tourist accommodation recorded 22 million more overnight stays than in the first half of 2025, when 1,299 million had been counted.
The sleeps of foreign visitors, i.e. non-residents in the country of destination, increased by 2.5% in homologous terms, while residents' sleeps grew by only 0.9%.
This means the sleeps of foreign visitors growing almost three times more than residents, Eurostat notes.
In the EU as a whole, foreigners accounted for 48.9% of all stays in the first six months of the year, although with significant differences between Member States.
By countries, Malta (95.2%), Cyprus (92.6%) and Luxembourg (87.7%) had the highest proportions of sleep of foreign visitors.
On the contrary, foreign tourists accounted for less than a quarter of the nights in Germany (18.5%), Poland (19.8%) and Romania (23.0%).
Again among the EU countries, Ireland experienced the highest annual increase in accommodation stays in tourist accommodation in the first half, with an increase of 14.6%, followed by Malta (+9.9 %) and Slovakia (+5.9 %).
On the other hand, nine Member States have seen a decline in overnight stays, with the highest falls occurring in Cyprus (-7.7%) and Romania (-6.7 %).
The data relate to overnight stays in tourist accommodation establishments and compare the first six months of 2026 with the same period of 2025.