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Annual activity report 2019 - Eurostat

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Pandemic crisis and economic trends: the tourism sector in European and EFTA countries

Some results:

- the second quarter 2020 marked the low point in the decline of quarterly gdp since 2017 for all countries under consideration, with the efta countries being affected to a somewhat lesser degree., - efta countries have profited from a compensation effect in 2020 and 2021 with domestic tourism compensating at least partially for losses of foreign tourism in terms of total nights spent., - number of passengers decreased over all modes of transport (air, railway, maritime) in 2020 and 2021, with the largest amplitudes in air passenger transport. recent data for 2021 shows signs of slow recovery., introduction.

The recurrent tendency of national economies to pass through periods of expansion followed by contractions led to the idea that the underlying tendency is that of  a business cycle. In Official Statistics, the business cycle is often described through a series of expansions and contractions in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Production and price indices as well as other indicators, such as e.g. employment, often complement such analysis.

The current Covid pandemic situation caused a global economic recession, starting in most countries in the beginning of 2020 after a period of economic slowdown in 2019 [1] . Measures to limit the spread of the Covid virus, such as “lockdowns” and the accompanying interruptions in delivery and supply chains as well as a slowdown in consumer activities advanced the recession, causing firm bankruptcies and rapid increases in unemployment.

One of the areas that is amongst the most severely affected ones is the tourism sector. Although latest releases from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) [2] revealed increased bookings for the Easter and summer periods 2022, the European travel and tourism sector’s contribution to GDP only grew by less than a quarter in 2021. After a worldwide loss of about 62 million travel jobs in 2020, the sector employment remained almost stagnant (+0.7%) in 2021 [3] . According to WTTC’s latest projections from October 2021 this tendency could be followed by an increase of 18% in 2022.

Shifting away from the worldwide situation and focussing instead on the European economy, the present publication intends to provide some empirical facts on the current situation in the tourism sector while paying special attention to data from EFTA countries. Official Statistics in the European Statistical System (ESS), to which all EFTA countries adhere, reacted to the need for key figures throughout the pandemic with the provision of a wide range of statistics, in order to provide a baseline against which the impact of the crises can be measured and its development be evaluated. The European Recovery Dashboard [4] provides in this regard an overview on indicators that display the recent economic development in several areas.

In order to first convey a more general picture of the current economic situation in Europe we will first present some figures on the latest GDP developments for the EU 27, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. As will become evident then, the second quarter 2020 marked the low point in the decline of quarterly GDP since 2017 for all countries under consideration, with the EFTA countries being affected to a somewhat lesser degree.

The tendency observed for quarterly GDP in the second quarter of 2020 is also clearly reflected in the number of overnight stays in European tourist accommodations in this period for EFTA countries as well as for the top three tourist destinations in the EU. Interesting in this context is how far domestic overnight stays have compensated for foreign ones.

Finally, we will look at passenger transport in different modes (air, railway and maritime) in order to convey an impression of the economic effects of the pandemic in this area. As will become clear then, all modes of passenger transport have been negatively affected by the pandemic, although to varying degrees.

Signs of economic recovery: GDP

GDP is one of the key indicators used to describe economic activity, and therefore quarterly GDP estimates usually receive a lot of attention when assessing short-term economic development. An economic recession can be defined according to several criteria, but a frequently used criterion is two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. In order to describe the severity of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic we look at the development in quarterly GDP volume in the period 2017-2021.

Figure 1 shows the development of quarterly GDP volumes for the EU-27 aggregate and the EFTA countries. It was evident that the economic activity in the EU-27 and the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland not only entered into an economic slowdown in the first half of 2020, but according to the criteria above also a recession with two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. The EU-27 as a whole experienced a larger decline in quarterly GDP from the fourth quarter 2019 to the second quarter 2020 with an overall drop of 14 per cent in this period compared to the EFTA countries: the GDP of Iceland fell by 12 per cent in the same period, whereas the GDP of Norway and Switzerland fell by 6 and 8 per cent respectively. Looking at the quarterly changes rate in GDP volume from a longer perspective, quarterly GDP fell by 1.8 and 2.9 per cent for EU-27 during the first and second quarters of 2019 respectively. These quarterly changes observed during the financial crisis of the late 2000s appear very modest compared to the drop of 11.3 per cent from the first to the second quarter 2020 in quarterly GDP for EU-27, which illustrates the severe impact the pandemic had on economic activity in 2020.

As the economic slowdown was closely connected to the restrictions introduced during the pandemic, one would anticipate a gradual recovery when such restrictions are removed. This  could be observed by the growth in GDP in the period from the second quarter 2020 and onwards for both the EU-27 and the EFTA countries. However, as can be seen from figure 1 the economic growth following the first half 2020 has been unstable, even with periods of economic slowdown. While the GDP volumes of Norway and Switzerland surpassed the level before the pandemic towards the end of 2021, the GDP of EU-27 is at the about the same level as in the fourth quarter 2019 and lower for Iceland.

Fig. 1: Quarterly Gross Domestic Product, chain-linked volume, seasonally and calendar adjusted data, 2015=100. Data for Iceland seasonally adjusted only. Data from Liechtenstein not available.

Because of the restrictions introduced on travel, the tourism sector was one of the sectors that experienced a marked economic downturn during the pandemic. This becomes also evident in figure 2, which shows the development in quarterly Gross Value Added (GVA) [5] volume for the EU-27, and the EFTA countries Norway and Switzerland. As there is no single available estimate for the tourism sector from quarterly national accounts, we look at the closest available aggregate, which also includes the sectors wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food service activities. From the fourth quarter 2019 to the second quarter 2020, GVA dropped markedly for these sectors, by about 25 per cent for EU-27, and about 13 per cent for both Norway and Switzerland. Again, the drop in economic activity was larger for the EU-27 compared to the two EFTA countries Norway and Switzerland. Moreover, the following recovery was substantial from second to third quarter 2020 for these economies. As was observed with the overall quarterly GDP the recovery was not stable and with declining economic activity towards the end of 2020 and early 2021. Figure 2 also shows that the GVA for these sectors is still at a lower level in the third quarter 2021 compared to quarter four 2019 (before the pandemic began) for EU-27 and Switzerland. Together, these findings indicate that the recovery was not complete nor was there continuous growth, which is likely linked to the continued impact of the pandemic restrictions during this period.

Fig. 2: Quarterly Gross Value Added in wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food service activities (NACE G-I), chain-linked volume, seasonally and calendar adjusted data, 2015=100. Data from Iceland and Liechtenstein not available.

Nights spent in tourism accommodation: The overall picture

Figure 3 illustrates the total nights spent (national and international) in tourism accommodation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland from early January 2018 to the end of November 2021. Overall development in nights spent is marked by seasonal fluctuations which are characteristic for the tourism sector. As can be seen from figure 3, the seasonality for the alpine countries Switzerland and Liechtenstein differs from Norway and Iceland with respect to a pronounced winter season in addition to the summer period.

In contrast to the usual seasonal fluctuations, the number of overnight stays followed the consequences of the measures against the pandemic. The drop of nights spent in EFTA countries in April 2020 followed the lockdown implemented in March 2020. This trend also holds for the alpine countries, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. All four countries stand out with the number of nights spent in summer 2020 which was followed by an important drop. As the latest data from 2021 indicate, the tendency shows an upward trend although not attaining the pre-pandemic level of 2019 so far.

Fig.3 : Total nights spent in tourist accommodation, EFTA countries.

Germany, Italy and Spain are amongst the largest tourism destinations in the EU. Therefore, we focus in the second step on the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodations in these countries in the same period from 2018 to 2021. As can be seen in figure 4, over the whole observation period Italy was the country with the highest number of nights spent in the summer period, followed by Spain and Germany. This ranking changed somewhat in 2020, with Italy still having the highest number of nights spent, now followed by Germany and then Spain. The evolution follows somewhat the pattern of the pandemic measures. As figure 4 indicates,  there were also less nights spent in the summer seasons 2020 and 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Fig. 4 : Total nights spent in tourist accommodation in selected EU countries .

Nights spent in tourism accommodations by domestic and foreign tourists

The following figures illustrate nights spent in EFTA countries regarding the travellers’ country of residence from January 2018 to the latest data in 2021. Despite an increase in the nights spent in 2021 compared to 2020, the level stays lower than before the pandemic. This section will permit us to observe if there is a compensation effect in accommodation thanks to a higher domestic tourism in comparison to foreign tourism.

Fig. 5 : Overnight stays in Iceland

Figure 5 illustrates the nights spent in Iceland. The development is characterised by a seasonal demand in summer mainly from international travellers. There is a reversed tendency in 2020 after sanitary measures had been introduced which caused the closure of many hotels in March and April: the Icelanders spent more nights in tourism accommodations than international travellers. In July 2020, Icelanders represented 63% or 529,648 overnight stays, whereas foreign visitors represented 37%, with 307,784 overnights. Domestic overnights represent an increase of 22% compared to July 2019, but it did not compensate fully the loss of foreigners travelling to Iceland compared to 2019. In summer 2021, Iceland reached again more than 1 million nights in July 2021 in all accommodations, and the foreign nights were again more important with 52% of total nights spent. Again, domestic overnights didn’t compensate for the loss of international tourism as compared to pre-pandemic times in 2019.

Fig. 6 : Overnight stays in Norway

The Norwegian tourism sector is characterised by an important part of domestic nights spent in tourist accommodations. As figure 6 shows, after the lockdown on 12th of March 2020 there was a decrease in demand with only 331,077 nights in April 2020, this is 84% fewer than in April 2019. July 2020 is almost as high as July 2019, due to a compensation effect by the domestic guest nights, accounting for more than 39% compared to July 2019. Despite this good summer season the number of nights spent remain lower than at pre-pandemic level. In August 2021, Statistics Norway recorded the highest number of Norwegian overnights in four years with 3,521,091 domestic overnights. This is 21% more than for the respective month in 2020 and 19% more than 2019. With fewer travel restrictions in place by the end of September 2021 a record number of guest nights was attained in October with a total of 2,362,975 overnights (domestic and international). This represents an increase of nearly 6% compared to 2019. In November 2021 the number of overnights reached the same level as before the pandemic in November 2019.

Fig. 7 : Overnight stays in Switzerland

As figure 7 shows,  the number of domestic overnights in Switzerland are similar to the international figure. In winter 2019/2020, Switzerland experienced an increase in domestic and foreign overnight stays although  first effects of the pandemic-related measures showed effect in February 2020. As the Federal Council announced restrictions for the Swiss population in March 2020, the tourism sector saw a drop in demand with 58% fewer overnights in March and 92% fewer in April as compared to 2019. After measures against Covid had been relaxed in June 2020, the Swiss overnights were rapidly recovering during July and August 2020 with even a stronger demand between July and October 2020 in comparison to 2019 numbers (15,6 millions in 2020 and 12,3 millions in 2019, representing an increase of 27%). Figure 7 shows the importance of domestic overnights in the total numbers of nights spent in Switzerland during summer 2020. The low foreign demand is probably due to the travel restrictions around the world. The following winter season 2020/2021 still shows lower numbers of nights spent in Switzerland in comparison to 2019. However, with 72% more domestic overnights  the number of overnights in March 2021 was higher than in March 2020 although numbers of foreign overnights were still low (minus 23% in comparison to 2020). This difference was less important than in March 2020 where it amounted to minus 66% compared to the same period in 2019 in numbers of nights spent.

To sum up,  EFTA countries have profited from a compensation effect with regard to the domestic tourism in terms of total nights spent. However, this effect did not always outweigh the loss incurred of fewer international travellers. This seems to hold in particular during the off-seasons where nights spent in tourist accommodations remain at a lower level compared to 2019.

Air passenger transport

Over the last decade up to 2020 air transport in Europe has grown rapidly as a result of various factors such as economic growth and integration, liberalisation and higher productivity. It is characterised by seasonal upticks in demand during holiday periods. In 2019, the year before the pandemic a total of 1,034 billion passengers flew from one of the EU27 airports. During the pandemic, the seasonal pattern was still recognisable, albeit on a much lower scale. Restrictions introduced as a response to the pandemic were especially strict in the second quarter of 2020, when air traffic fell to 7,3 million passengers in the 27 member states, which corresponded to only 2,6% of the previous year's passenger volume. Although the aggregate for the 3 rd and 4 th quarters 2021 is not yet available, data from individual member states show a rather slow rebound even though figures are generally considerably higher than in 2020.

Fig. 8 : Air passenger transport in the EU27

As can be seen in figure 14, air transport numbers for the three EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, which have at least one airport, follow a similar pattern, but with important local differences:

The first months of 2020 show a pronounced downward trend for Switzerland: As the country has relatively few national flights and international flights were – because of the various restrictions in different countries - severely limited, its air passenger industry came almost to a complete halt. The second quarter of 2020 saw only 2,4% of the number of passengers (363 077 Passengers) compared to the same period in 2019, presumably flights from Switzerland into the EU. This tendency for Switzerland resembles the one for 2020 of the entire EU with mainly flights within the European market.

In Iceland, which also has few domestic flights and restrictive entry rules, the number of passengers amounted in the second quarter 2020 only to 3,2% of the same quarter in the previous year. The Icelandic passenger numbers for the whole of 2021 are around 59,3% higher than in 2020, which marks a clear upward trend.

In contrast, the development in Norway, where air travel is an important means of domestic transport, was less dramatic: The number of passengers in 2020 dropped to 32,8% compared to 2019 and remained at a low level throughout 2020. In 2021 the passenger numbers grew by 7% compared to 2020, which was still only 35% of 2019.

Fig. 9: Air passenger transport in Iceland, Norway and Switzerland

Railway passenger transport

After a steady increase during several years, the annual EU27 traffic figures dropped from 413,9 million passengers in 2019 to 223,4 million passengers in 2020 – a reduction of 46%. The use of the railways appears to be generally only weakly seasonal, not least because of the largely complementary nature of leisure and commuter traffic. The use of railways varies between the individual countries, which on the one hand has to do with geography and demography, and on the other hand also with the level of development of services and infrastructure. Quarterly figures are not available for all EU27 countries, which is why the following analysis only looks at individual countries. No figures are available for Iceland, which has no railway, and Liechtenstein, whose only railway line is operated by the Austrian railway. For the sake of comparability, the analysis is based on a selection of countries of similar size, such as the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.

The covid impact on the use of railways was stronger in countries such as the Netherlands or Switzerland whereas the northern countries were somewhat less affected.

It should be noted that the relatively high level of passenger numbers in Switzerland partly depends on the definition of railways: Subways do not count as railways but play an important role in the largest metropolitan areas of all observed countries except Switzerland where suburban trains partly take over the role of subways.

Fig. 10: Railway passenger transport in selected countries

In 2020, all observed countries experienced sharp declines in the number of passengers using railways compared to the previous year. Switzerland (67,8%) and the Czech Republic (66,5%) recorded around a third fewer rail passengers. Compared to 2019, in Sweden, the passenger volume in 2020 was still 63,9%, in Norway 52,3% and in the Netherlands 46,7%. As with all modes of transports considered here, the second quarter 2020 was the weakest in all countries with regard to passenger numbers: compared to the same quarter 2019, passenger volume fell by up to 78,7% in the Netherlands, 66 % in Norway and 57,3% in Switzerland.

Maritime passenger transport

In the period 2017-2020 marine passenger traffic follows a strongly seasonal pattern with peaks in the summer months. This is true for the whole of Europe even though the variation is more pronounced in the Mediterranean countries. This can be seen for example with Norway, where passenger traffic in the first quarter (winter) represents usually only about half of numbers for the third quarter (summer). In Italy and other Mediterranean countries this seasonal difference can mount up to four times for the summer period.

Fig. 11: Maritime passenger transport in EU27

The advent of covid shows how traffic decreased from the outset. In Norway traffic fell from 6,3 million passengers in 2019 to 1,9 million passengers in 2020, hence only 29,7% of that of the year before with the other countries following that tendency although it was less pronounced. It is also a lower percentage than in other Nordic countries such as Sweden (45,6%).

Fig. 12: Maritime passenger transport in selected countries. Data from Iceland and the landlocked countries of Liechtenstein and Switzerland not available.

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Explanatory and methodological notes

The data used in this article were extracted from Eurostat's dissemination database and from the Swiss Statistical Office.

• Fig. 1: Eurostat, date of extraction 31-01-2022, https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=namq_10_gdp&lang=en
• Fig. 2: Eurostat, date of extraction 31-01-2022, https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=namq_10_a10&lang=en
• Fig. 3: Eurostat, date of extraction 09-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TOUR_OCC_NIM/default/table?lang=en&category=tour.tour_indm
• Fig. 4: Eurostat, date of extraction 09-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TOUR_OCC_NIM/default/table?lang=en&category=tour.tour_indm
• Fig. 5: Eurostat, date of extraction 09-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TOUR_OCC_NIM/default/table?lang=en&category=tour.tour_indm
• Fig. 6: Eurostat, date of extraction 09-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TOUR_OCC_NIM/default/table?lang=en&category=tour.tour_indm
• Fig. 7: Eurostat, date of extraction 09-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TOUR_OCC_NIM/default/table?lang=en&category=tour.tour_indm
• Fig. 8: Eurostat, date of extraction 22-02-2022, https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=avia_paoc&lang=en
• Fig. 9: Eurostat, date of extraction 22-02-2022, https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=avia_paoc&lang=en
• Fig. 10: Eurostat, date of extraction 22-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/rail_pa_quartal/default/table?lang=en
• Fig. 11: Eurostat, date of extraction 22-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/mar_pa_qm/default/table?lang=en
•  Fig. 12: Eurostat, date of extraction 22-02-2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/mar_pa_qm/default/table?lang=en

Authors : Marius Andersen, Pascal Bisang, Ambre Crettenand, Volker Täube

EFTA Statistical Office

5, Rue Alphonse Weicker

L-2920 Luxembourg

[email protected]

[1] See also: "The World Economy: Synchronized Slowdown, Precarious Outlook"  IMF Blog. Retrieved 15 April 2020.

[2] See WTTC Presse Release from 21.10.2021.

[3] See WTTC Release on Staff Shortages from December 2021: WTTC-Staff-Shortages.pdf

[4] See: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/recovery-dashboard/

[5] Gross Value Added (GVA): GVA is defined as the value of output minus the  intermediate consumption in National Accounts.

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Commission (Eurostat) publishes first statistics on short-stay accommodation booked via collaborative economy platforms

The data published today are a first step and will be regularly updated by Eurostat. In particular, they cover national, regional and city-level data on the number of stays booked and the number of nights spent in accommodation booked via these four platforms. Such information will (i) contribute to more complete statistics on tourism accommodation in Europe, (ii) allow public authorities to better understand the development of the collaborative economy (in particular, short-term accommodation rentals services) and (iii) support evidence-based policies.

Prior to today's publication, European official statistics provided only limited coverage of this part of the short-stay accommodation sector since data on rentals of holiday homes, apartments and rooms in otherwise private buildings are often outside the scope of existing tourism registers and surveys. The figures published today are an important step towards closing this gap. They cover accommodation booked via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor in 2018 and 2019, offering valuable insights into the importance of the collaborative economy for the tourism sector before the COVID pandemic.

The Commission aims at publishing in the course of the year further data on short-term accommodation rentals provided by these platforms for 2020. They will offer useful inputs for policy makers and will feed into the process of co-creating a transition pathway for a more sustainable, innovative and resilient tourism ecosystem.

Commissioner Gentiloni , Commissioner for Economy, said: “This successful collaboration between Eurostat and the four main platforms for short-term rental accommodation is a model for providing more comprehensive and reliable statistics through access to privately held data. The figures published today are an important source of information for European public authorities and can contribute to better policy-making, while protecting personal information.”

Commissioner Breton , Commissioner for the Internal Market, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the tourism industry, a key sector of the EU's economy. Like other European industries, the future of tourism will hinge on our collective ability to transition to a greener, more digital and resilient future. By 2030, Europe should be a top quality destination known globally for its sustainable offer, and attracting responsible and environmentally conscious travelers. The comprehensive data on short-term accommodation rentals published today will support public authorities in developing evidence-based policies.”

Key findings

• In 2019 (the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, which strongly hit the tourism sector), guests spent more than 554 million nights in an accommodation booked via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group or Tripadvisor in the EU. This means that, on an average day, around 1.5 million guests slept in a bed booked through one of these four platforms. The number of nights spent in short-term accommodation booked via the four platforms grew by 14 % between 2018 and 2019.
• The top city destinations for bookings through one of the four platforms were: (i) the urban areas of Paris (15.1 million guest nights); (ii) Barcelona (11.3 million); (iii) Rome (10.4 million); (iv) Lisbon (10.5 million); and, (v) Madrid (8.3 million).
• The five most popular destination countries for stays booked via the four private platforms were: (i) Spain (112 million guest nights); (ii) France (109 million); (iii) Italy (83 million guest nights); (iv) Germany (40 million); and (v) Portugal (33 million).The 20 most popular regions in the EU account for nearly half (48%) of the total number of guest nights booked via the four platforms. Most of these top 20 regions are located in Spain (six regions), France or Italy (five respectively), while two regions are in Portugal, one in Croatia and one in Hungary. In the three most popular regions, guests booked more than 20 million nights in 2019: Andalusia (26 million), Adriatic Croatia (25 million) and Catalonia (21 million). In 2019, these three regions accounted for 13% of the total guest nights spent in the EU that were booked via the four platforms. The regional breakdown can be found in the map below.

The full release package, which is available here , includes a detailed article on Eurostat's ' Statistics Explained ' platform and tables covering data for more than 200 European cities and all regions (defined at NUTS3 level), but also analyses the country of origin of the guest and the seasonality of the number of bookings and of guest nights.

The collaborative economy covers a great variety of sectors and is rapidly growing across Europe. In the tourism sector, the collaborative economy provides many exciting opportunities for citizens as consumers, as well as for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs. At the same time, its rapid development has led to challenges, particularly in popular tourist destinations. As a result, cities and other communities are seeking to strike a balance between promoting tourism, with the economic benefits it brings, and maintaining the integrity of local communities.

To promote a balanced development of the collaborative economy, in 2016, the Commission issued Guidelines on how existing EU rules apply to the collaborative economy. A series of workshops in 2017 and 2018 identified policy principles and good practices specifically on collaborative short-term accommodation services.

In the short-term rental sector, the Commission is also working with cities around Europe to address issues that have arisen as a result of the rapid growth of collaborative short-term accommodation rentals and maintains a continuous exchange with local regulators. These discussions, which will now benefit also from the statistics published today, address possible policy actions and good practices for consideration of public authorities and other stakeholders when putting into place policy measures in line with EU law.

In March 2020, the Commission reached a landmark agreement with Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor on data sharing. The agreement, signed between each platform and Eurostat (on behalf of the European Commission), allows Eurostat to obtain key data from the four collaborative platforms and publish on its website experimental statistics on short-term accommodation rentals concluded through these platforms. Among other data, platforms agreed to share, on a continuous basis, figures on the number of nights booked and the number of guests.

The privacy of citizens, including guests and hosts, is protected in line with applicable EU legislation and data will not allow individual citizens or property owners to be identified. The data provided by the four platforms is then subject to statistical validation and aggregated by Eurostat. Eurostat publishes data for all Member States as well as many individual regions and cities by combining the information obtained from the platforms.

More Information

Landmark agreement

Flyer on Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Collaborative economy (2018)

In-depth statistical article on the topic

Overview of Commission policy actions on Collaborative economy

Eurostat dataset on collaborative economy

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Size of the museums, historical sites, zoos, and parks market worldwide in 2022, with a forecast for 2023 and 2027 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Leading museums by highest attendance worldwide 2019-2022

Most visited museums worldwide from 2019 to 2022 (in millions)

Most visited amusement and theme parks worldwide 2019-2022

Leading amusement and theme parks worldwide from 2019 to 2022, by attendance (in millions)

Monuments on the UNESCO world heritage list 2023, by type

Number of monuments on the UNESCO world heritage list as of September 2023, by type

Selected countries with the most Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide 2023

Number of Michelin-starred restaurants in selected countries and territories worldwide as of July 2023

Online travel market

• Premium Statistic Online travel market size worldwide 2017-2028
• Premium Statistic Estimated desktop vs. mobile revenue of leading OTAs worldwide 2023
• Premium Statistic Number of aggregated downloads of leading online travel agency apps worldwide 2023
• Basic Statistic Market cap of leading online travel companies worldwide 2023
• Premium Statistic Leading online travel companies worldwide 2020-2022, by revenue CAGR
• Premium Statistic Leading online travel companies worldwide 2022-2023, by EV/EBITDA

Online travel market size worldwide 2017-2028

Online travel market size worldwide from 2017 to 2023, with a forecast until 2028 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Estimated desktop vs. mobile revenue of leading OTAs worldwide 2023

Estimated desktop vs. mobile revenue of leading online travel agencies (OTAs) worldwide in 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Number of aggregated downloads of leading online travel agency apps worldwide 2023

Number of aggregated downloads of selected leading online travel agency apps worldwide in 2023 (in millions)

Market cap of leading online travel companies worldwide 2023

Market cap of leading online travel companies worldwide as of September 2023 (in million U.S. dollars)

Leading online travel companies worldwide 2020-2022, by revenue CAGR

Revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of leading online travel companies worldwide from 2020 to 2022

Leading online travel companies worldwide 2022-2023, by EV/EBITDA

Enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) of selected leading online travel companies worldwide in 2022, with a forecast for 2023

Selected trends

• Premium Statistic Global travelers who believe in the importance of green travel 2022
• Premium Statistic Sustainable initiatives travelers would adopt worldwide 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Airbnb revenue worldwide 2017-2023
• Premium Statistic Airbnb nights and experiences booked worldwide 2017-2023
• Premium Statistic Technologies global hotels plan to implement in the next three years 2022
• Premium Statistic Hotel technologies global consumers think would improve their future stay 2022

Global travelers who believe in the importance of green travel 2022

Share of travelers that believe sustainable travel is important worldwide in 2022

Sustainable initiatives travelers would adopt worldwide 2022, by region

Main sustainable initiatives travelers are willing to adopt worldwide in 2022, by region

Airbnb revenue worldwide 2017-2023

Revenue of Airbnb worldwide from 2017 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Airbnb nights and experiences booked worldwide 2017-2023

Nights and experiences booked with Airbnb from 2017 to 2023 (in millions)

Technologies global hotels plan to implement in the next three years 2022

Technologies hotels are most likely to implement in the next three years worldwide as of 2022

Hotel technologies global consumers think would improve their future stay 2022

Must-have hotel technologies to create a more amazing stay in the future among travelers worldwide as of 2022

• Premium Statistic Travel and tourism revenue worldwide 2019-2028, by segment
• Premium Statistic Distribution of sales channels in the travel and tourism market worldwide 2018-2028
• Premium Statistic Inbound tourism visitor growth worldwide 2020-2025, by region
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourism visitor growth worldwide 2020-2025, by region

Travel and tourism revenue worldwide 2019-2028, by segment

Revenue of the global travel and tourism market from 2019 to 2028, by segment (in billion U.S. dollars)

Distribution of sales channels in the travel and tourism market worldwide 2018-2028

Revenue share of sales channels of the travel and tourism market worldwide from 2018 to 2028

Inbound tourism visitor growth worldwide 2020-2025, by region

Inbound tourism visitor growth worldwide from 2020 to 2022, with a forecast until 2025, by region

Outbound tourism visitor growth worldwide 2020-2025, by region

Outbound tourism visitor growth worldwide from 2020 to 2022, with a forecast until 2025, by region

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High-value datasets – tourism in the EU

Discover statistics to analyse tourism flows

This is part of a series of articles showcasing examples of high-value datasets from their different thematic categories. High-value datasets are defined by EU law based on their potential to provide essential benefits to society, the environment and the economy. This series aims to help readers find reliable and accurate information from official sources relating to the availability of various high-value datasets, and to present this information through data visualisation. You can check out the article providing an overview of high-value datasets .

Only datasets specifically defined by law can be considered high-value datasets and, as such, the data presented in this series of articles does not necessarily fall under that definition. Instead, the data has been chosen to be thematically adjacent to high-value datasets and to showcase what can be done with information made available by official EU bodies and EU Member States. The official list of high-value datasets adopted on 12 December 2022 can be found in the legal documents that define these datasets and their characteristics.

Using high-value datasets to analyse tourism

Representing nearly 10 % of the EU’s GDP and accounting for 23 million jobs in 2019 , tourism is an essential part of the EU’s economy. The EU’s tourism ecosystem involves various sectors such as food and beverage services, online information and services, travel agents and tour operators, accommodation suppliers and transportation.

Furthermore, the EU’s industrial strategy aims to accelerate the green and digital transitions and increase tourism resilience. In February 2022, the European Commission proposed a transition pathway for the tourism industry, including 27 areas of measures for the green and digital transitions and improving tourism resilience. Based on the Commission’s transition pathway, the Council of the European Union has adopted the European agenda for tourism 2030 , which includes a multiannual work plan with actions for Member States, the Commission and tourism stakeholders.

In this context, data on tourism can provide essential insights and as such, tourism statistics have been included in the list of high-value datasets. The ‘Statistics’ category of high-value datasets includes several datasets about tourism flows in Europe, as laid out by section 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Tourism-related high-value datasets contain information about yearly tourism flows and include indicators such as the number of nights spent at tourist establishments, including specifically by EU residents, participation in tourism for personal purposes, tourism trips and expenditures. The indicators may also offer several breakdowns, including the countries of origin and destination, duration of the trip, means of transport and accommodation. In some cases, geographical information is also accessible, with data available up to the NUTS 2 (region), NUTS 3 (province) or coastal/non-coastal area levels.

Tourism data from Eurostat

The EU’s official statistical office, Eurostat , offers a large number of datasets to study tourism, along with a detailed page in the ‘Statistics Explained’ section that shows major trends. One way to look at tourism is to analyse where people tend to come from and where they go. Eurostat data can be used to determine the countries in which people travel the most and others where tourism is less frequent.

The following visualisation shows the share of people out of the total population participating in tourism, from Member States to other world destinations. This data shows that the countries with the highest values are the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Finland and Sweden.

Eurostat also offers datasets that show the preferred destinations for tourists from inside and outside the EU. A good indicator to measure this phenomenon is the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments, which is available for all guests or only for international guests .

To better understand tourists’ preferences, data can be disaggregated to show the type of accommodation they chose – a hotel, a camping site or other short-term accommodation – and whether the tourists were domestic or came from abroad.

By adjusting for population, the indicator called ‘Tourism intensity’ represents the number of nights spent by domestic or international guests in tourist accommodation. Looking at this indicator, smaller countries like Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Austria and Greece stand out as major tourism destinations.

Tourism data on data.europa.eu

As previously mentioned, high-value datasets include several indicators through which it is possible to analyse tourism from different perspectives. Information of similar scope has been provided by Member States on the data.europa.eu portal, where it can be freely reused by everyone.

One of these indicators is tourism expenditure, for which the portal provides several datasets . Examples include a study from the EU’s Joint Research Centre that estimated the average economic value generated for each night spent or a dataset showing expenditures and earnings by and from travellers to and from Ireland.

Another interesting dataset was uploaded by the data portal of the Dutch government. The Eurostat data revealed that Dutch people are among the most active in tourist activities and this dataset offers many insights about their travel habits over time.

Datasets on data.europa.eu also cover other aspects related to tourism, such as means of transport , accommodation and booking modalities . Examples include a Joint Research Centre study that estimated the percentage of travel by train and the number of foreign tourists staying in Milan by area of origin and type of accommodation.

Data for tourism in Milan accounts for the number of nights spent in the city and shows a significant presence of tourists from other Member States – especially France and Germany. The third-largest influx of tourists come from the United States, while other important groups of people travelled to Milan from Switzerland, Liechtenstein and from several Middle Eastern countries.

Other than Eurostat and the Member States, data about tourism is also produced by the European Environmental Agency , which focuses on the environmental impact of tourism. Sociological data is made available by Eurobarometer , with public opinion surveys on a range of EU-related topics across its Member States regularly conducted by the Commission and other EU institutions since 1973. Some of those surveys asked European residents about their attitude towards tourism and the results can be downloaded from the data.europa.eu portal.

Download the data visualisations presented in this story and the data behind them.

Article by Davide Mancino

Data visualisations by Federica Fragapane

EU tourism fully recovered from the pandemic in 2022- Eurostat

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Bulgaria’s independent English-language news and features website.

Eurostat: EU tourism industry seems to be strongly rebounding from pandemic

The European Union’s tourism industry seems to be strongly rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on January 18.

The total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in 2022 was close to the pre-pandemic level (2.72 billion nights in 2022 compared with 2.88 billion in 2019; -5.6 per cent), Eurostat said.

This represents substantial increases compared with the number of nights spent in 2020 and 2021 (1.42 billion in 2020, 1.83 billion in 2021; 91.1 per cent and 48.3 per cent in 2022, respectively).

In the course of 2022, monthly tourism figures increased continuously and finally approached the levels of the corresponding months in 2019.

Compared with the pre-summer first half year of 2019 (January–June), in the same period of 2022, nights spent in tourist accommodation were down by 11 per cent. Meanwhile, the period July-December closely mirrored 2019 levels of nights spent (-1.9 per cent).

Data for 2022 also show that nights spent by international guests have neared 2019 levels (1.19 billion nights in 2022 compared with 1.36 billion in 2019; -12.6 per cent), Eurostat said.

“This represents a strong increase compared with the number of nights spent by foreign tourists in 2020 and in 2021 (412.5 million nights in 2020, 587.8 million in 2021; +188.8 per cent and +102.6 per cent in 2022, respectively),” the statistics agency said.

Regarding domestic travel, 2022 data show a record number of 1.53 billion nights spent, an increase of 10.9 million compared with 2019 (+0.7 per cent).

Among the EU countries, the number of nights spent  by domestic and foreign tourists in 2022 compared with 2019 increased in three of the member states with available data: Denmark (38.4 million nights in 2022 compared with 34.3 million in 2019; 12.3 per cent), the Netherlands (128.3 million compared with 123.4 million; 3.9 per cent) and Belgium (42.7 million compared with 42.5 million; 0.5 per cent). 

Meanwhile, other countries have not yet fully recovered from the pandemic’s impact on tourism, Eurostat said.

This was particularly the case in Latvia (3.9 million in 2022 compared with 5.5 million in 2019; -29.6 per cent) and Slovakia (12.3 million compared with 17.2 million; -28.3 per cent), the agency said.

( Photo: Lance Nelson of Bansko App )

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