In the COVID-19 pandemic related travel restrictions stricken year 2021, residents of the European Union made 873 million trips with overnight stays – regardless of destination and duration. Of these, 8.0% were trips for professional purposes, while the remaining 92.0% were trips made for personal purposes.

The highest number of trips was made by residents of France (200 million trips), followed by Germany (178 million trips) and Spain (114 million trips). The trips made by the residents of these three countries accounted for more than half (56.0%) of all EU residents’ trips.

Unsurprisingly for 2021, on average for the EU, eight out of ten (84.6%) trips were domestic trips. More than nine out of ten trips made by residents of Romania (94.8%), Spain (94.7%), Finland (94.3%), Portugal (94.1%), Bulgaria (94.0%), France (93.7%) and Greece (92.7%) had a main destination inside their own country. 

Belgians and Luxembourgers go abroad

In only two EU Member States, foreign trips accounted for more than half of all tourism trips: Luxembourg (92.3%) and Belgium (57.4%).

At the end of 2021, we wrote why domestic tourism in Belgium is such a challenge.

Τourism trips made in the course of 2021 were dominated by short domestic breaks of one to three overnight stays (54.6% of all tourism trips). Trips of four nights or more accounted for 41.2% of all tourism trips (30.0% with a domestic destination and 11.2% with a destination outside the country of residence).

Europeans prefer trips inside their own country of residence

Although EU residents spent most of their trips inside their own country, more than three out of five of these domestic trips were short breaks of one to three overnight stays. 

Given the relatively short duration of domestic trips (on average 4.2 nights, as compared to 8.7 nights for foreign trips), the proportion of nights spent on domestic trips within all tourism nights was – at 72.8% – lower than the 84.6% share of domestic trips in all tourism trips. 

The highest number of domestic trips was in France, with nearly 188 million accounting for 25.4% of all domestic trips made by Europeans. As regards foreign trips, German tourists came on top, with almost 49 million foreign trips (36.2% of all foreign trips made by Europeans).

Europeans love Europe

More than eight out of ten foreign trips had as main destination another EU Member State, accounting for 110 million trips out of a total of 134 million foreign trips. 

Taking into account the 739 million domestic trips, this means that 97.1% of all trips with overnight stays that EU residents made in 2021 were within the European Union. 

Even when restricting the analysis to longer trips of at least four overnight stays – more likely to be further away from home – 94.5% were spent within the EU. Only in three Member States was the share of trips outside the EU 9% or more: Ireland (16.9%), Luxembourg (9.5%) and Croatia (9.4%).

85% of all trips made in 2021 lasted a maximum of one week

In 2021, 58.8% of the tourism trips that EU residents made were short, taking a maximum of three overnight stays. 

More than two out of three trips made by residents of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, Spain and Sweden were short trips. 

Only in five Member States, the number of long trips exceeded the number of short trips: Greece (73.5%), Italy (60.4%), Luxembourg (60.2%), Belgium (54.9%) and Croatia (51.2%).

The share of trips that lasted a maximum of one week was obtained by adding the short trips of one to three nights (58.8%) with the trips lasting four to seven nights (25.9 %), resulting in a dominant share of 84.7% of all trips made in 2021 (if we consider only trips for professional purposes this share was 92.3%). Only 5.1% of all trips were longer than two weeks.

Less than one in ten trips was for professional purposes

Almost half of the tourism trips (48.6%) had holidays, leisure and recreation as the main purpose, and one out of every three trips (37.6%) were to visit relatives and friends. 

Family visits accounted for a big share of short trips and of domestic trips. In total, – including other purposes such as pilgrimages or health treatment – trips for personal purposes made up 92.0% of all tourism trips in 2021.

In 2021, EU residents made 69 million trips for professional purposes (e.g. business trips), representing 8.0% of the total number of tourism trips. Most of these trips were domestic (81.3%) and had a duration of maximum 3 nights (70.4%). 

Of course, 2021 was still under the spell of the coronavirus so business trips and conferences were limited. 

Over half of all overnight stays were in non-rented accommodation

EU residents made a total of 4.3 billion overnight stays during tourism trips in 2021. 

More than half of these nights (51.4%) were spent in non-rented accommodation, while 48.6% were spent in rented accommodation. Accommodation provided without charge by relatives or friends came on top with 33.8%, followed by hotels or similar accommodation providing services such as daily cleaning and bed-making with 21.5%, while 16.5% were spent at a rented house, villa, apartment or rented room(s) in a dwelling.

Rented accommodation was more prevalent for foreign trips (62.4%), while tourists travelling within their own country were more likely to stay at non-rented accommodation (56.6%), provided mainly for free by friends or relatives (36.9%).

Looking only at nights spent in rented accommodation, in 2021 EU residents spent less than half of these tourism nights (44.3%) in hotels (or similar), compared to 2012, when more than half were spent there (55.9%). 

More than two out of five nights (43.1%) were spent in rented accommodation other than hotels or campsites. This latter category includes, among others, holiday dwellings, rented rooms in family houses and short-stay accommodation offered via online collaborative economy platforms.

In 2021, EU residents spent an estimate EUR 101 billion on tourist accommodation.

More than one in nine trips of Europeans were made by train

Motor vehicles (private or rented) were the main means of transport for 74.7% of all trips, followed by railway (11.9%) and air transport (7.7 %). 

Other modes of transport were relatively insignificant, though it is important to note that this pattern can be very different at country level. Waterways were the main means of transport for 64.7% of trips made by residents of Malta and 17% of trips made by Greek residents, while residents of Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania and Romania took buses for more than 8% of their trips.

Motor vehicles were the preferred means of transport both for foreign trips (50.4%) and domestic trips (79.1%), followed by rail (13.2%) for domestic trips, and by airplane for foreign trips (38.4%).

Recovering from the COVID-19 crisis

Overall, the 2008-09 global economic crisis did not strongly affect EU residents’ tourism. Following slight drops each year between 2009 and 2015, in 2016 the number of trips and nights spent started recovering and regained the levels existing prior to the economic crisis. 

In 2019 compared with 2007, the number of trips and nights spent increased by 6.4% and 1.5% respectively. However, tourism has developed very differently depending on whether the trips were made for personal or professional purposes. 

The COVID-19 crisis strongly affected EU residents’ tourism in 2020, with drops of 37% in the number or trips and the number of nights and even higher drops for business trips, compared to the previous year. The slow recovery started in 2021, when the number of trips increased by 22.5% compared to 2020, while the number of nights increased by 19.6% during the same period.

Collection of annual data on trips of EU residents

The collection consists of harmonised data collected by the Member States in the frame of the Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism. Eurostat translates this data into articles. 

The scope of observation for data on tourism trips are all tourism trips with at least one overnight stay, made by the resident population aged 15 and over. It includes trips made for private or professional purpose, outside the usual environment.

Context

The EU is a major tourist destination, with four Member States among the world’s top ten destinations for holidaymakers, according to United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) data. 

France is worldwide the number one destination, followed by Spain on 2. Italy is number 5 and Germany number 9. The others? The United States (3), the People’s Republic of China (4), Turkey or Türkiye (6), Mexico (7), Thailand (8) and the United Kingdom on 10.

Tourism is an important activity in the EU which has the potential to contribute towards employment and economic growth, as well as to development in rural, peripheral or less-developed areas. These characteristics drive the demand for reliable and harmonised statistics within this field, as well as within the wider context of regional policy and sustainable development policy areas.