On 7 July 2026, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published a short analysis on the summer peak in tourism. The data is for 2025 and comes from the dataset of overnight stays by month in tourist accommodation establishments.
What Eurostat reports
Across the EU, July and August together account for 31.1% of the year's overnight stays. In every country of the Union, these two months are the busiest.
Bulgaria is in second place by the share of the two months: 43.4%. Ahead of it is Croatia with 54.5%, and behind it is Greece with 41.6%. The concentration is lowest in Malta (21.9%), Germany (24.0%) and Finland (24.1%), which the publication gives as examples.
An overnight stay is counted for every night that a visitor, domestic or foreign, actually spends in tourist accommodation. The publication gives no breakdown by type of property or by region in Bulgaria, so the figure says nothing separately about hotels, guest houses, or the seaside and the mountains.
How to read the figure
This is a national average for one year. It is not a forecast for next summer and does not show what your occupancy will be. A property in the Rhodopes with a strong winter season can have a completely different picture from a seaside resort.
Still, the direction is clear: with such a large share in two months, the year for many Bulgarian venues rests on a short, strong peak, while the other months are much quieter.
What this means for the menu and the team
A few practical questions worth asking now, while the season is fresh:
- How much of your turnover and of your overnight stays in 2025 and in 2026 fell in July and August? Look at your own figures, not the national averages.
- Which dishes sold best at the height of the season and which came back to the kitchen? This is the basis of next summer's menu.
- How much stock and how many people did you plan for the peak, and how much of it went unused in the quieter weeks?
- Do you have a short menu that is cheaper to maintain for the months outside the peak, when the kitchen runs with fewer people?
If your menu is on paper or in a PDF, every such change means a new print run. That is why, with this kind of menu, the change is often put off, even when the guests and the team are different.
Where a digital menu helps
With ISKA Menu, changes are made from the portal or from your phone. They are drafts until you publish them, and the link the guest opens in the browser stays the same. You can prepare the autumn and winter version in advance and release it when you decide. The lunch menu and several languages are part of the paid Plus plan; current prices are on the pricing page.
This does not change the number of guests. It only helps the menu follow your year.
Where to read more
For preparing the menu after the peak of the season, see the material on closing the season. For the month with many guests and a busy kitchen, the menu calendar for the festive season is useful.