In 2023, the number of people travelling abroad for tourism had fully recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, with restrictions lifted for all destinations. The 3 EU regions at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2) with the highest number of nights spent by foreign tourists were the Spanish island regions of Canarias (83.2 million) and Illes Balears (61.7 million) and the Croatian coastal region of Jadranska Hrvatska (80.8 million). These three regions account for 16.4% of the total nights spent by foreigners in the EU.
Besides these 3, the top 10 regions with the highest values included the Spanish regions of Cataluña and Andalucia, two island regions of Greece (Notio Aigaio, Kriti), the French capital region of Ile-de-France, Veneto in Italy and Tirol in Austria, respectively. The top 10 tourist destinations represent more than one-third (37.6%) of the foreign nights spent in the EU in 2023.
In 58 regions out of 231 for which data are available the number of nights spent by foreign tourists was higher than that recorded for domestic tourists. The relative importance of foreign tourists was particularly high in 7 popular holiday destinations that accounted for more than 9 out of every 10 nights spent in tourist accommodation: the Greek island regions of Kriti (94.6%), Ionia Nisia (93.6%) and Notio Aigaio (92.0%), Malta (93.1%), Jadranska Hrvatska (92.5%), Cyprus (90.8%) and Tirol (90.7%).
Further information: EUROSTAT
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