Greece Sees Overnight Stays by Domestic Tourists Down in 2018

Photo source: Visit Greece / K. Kouzouni

Almost every EU Member State recorded an increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments* by residents in 2018, with the exception of Greece and Luxembourg, according to preliminary figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday.

According to the data, overall the number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation establishments in Greece in 2018 is expected to exceed 111 million, up by 0.5 percent compared to 2017.

However, overnight stays in Greece by residents (domestic tourists traveling inside their own country of residence) showed a 7.3 percent decrease, compared to 2017.

On the other hand, 82 percent of these overnight stays (or in absolute numbers 91.5 million nights) in 2018 were made by non residents (inbound tourists) and increased by 2.5 percent compared to the year before.

Number of nights spent in the EU up by 2% in 2018

According to Eurostat, in 2018, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the European Union is expected to have reached more than 3.1 billion, up by 2.2 percent compared with 2017.

Barcelona, Spain

“Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU, notably driven by the rise in the nights spent by non-residents of the country visited,” Eurostat said.

In 2018, Spain (467 million nights, -0.9 percent compared with 2017) retained its lead, ahead of France (444mn, +2.4 percent), Italy (429mn, +1.9 percent) and Germany (419mn, +4.3 percent).

Highest share of nights spent by residents, non-residents

Eurostat’s data showed that in the EU, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation by residents grew slightly faster (+2.3 percent) between 2017 and 2018 than those spent by non-residents (+2.0 percent).

Almost every EU Member State recorded an increase in the number of tourism nights spent by residents, with the exception of Greece (-7.3 percent) and Luxembourg (-4.5 percent).

Limassol, Cyprus. Photo source: Visit Cyprus

Within the EU Member States, the largest shares of nights spent by residents were recorded in Romania (81 percent of total nights spent), Poland (80 percent), Germany (79 percent) and Sweden (74 percent). In contrast, the largest shares of nights spent by non-residents were registered in Malta (96 percent of total nights spent), Cyprus (95 percent) and Croatia (93 percent).

* According to Eurostat, under the statistical classification of economic activities, tourist accommodation establishments include: hotels and similar accommodation; holiday and other short-stay accommodation; and camping grounds, recreational vehicle and trailer parks. The number of nights includes nights spent by both residents and non-residents, whether for business or leisure.