Winter Evolving into Popular Tourism Season for the EU

European Union countries are seeing a rising demand for their winter tourism products with visitors choosing to stay an additional 18.9 million nights at hotels and accommodation facilities from November 2018 to April 2019 marking a 2.6 percent rise compared to a year earlier, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.

Romania marked the highest increase at 8.6 percent last year, followed by Croatia at 7.4 percent, and Poland at 7.3 percent.

On the downside, Greece together with Malta were the only two EU member states to report declines.

Winter tourism to Greece dropped by 8.3 percent, demonstrating yet again the critical issue of seasonality. In Malta the percentage dropped by 3.5 points.

At the top of the list of most popular EU winter destinations for international tourists in the 2018-2019 period was Spain, accounting for 20 percent of all nights spent by non-residents.

Other winter favorites were Italy and the UK with 12 percent, followed by Austria (10 percent), Germany and France (9 percent).

Together these six EU countries accounted for 72 percent of all nights spent by non-residents.