On 1 September 2026, Eurostat published data on overnight stays in accommodation in the European Union in the first half of the year. The figures cover the period from January to June 2026 and are compared with the same period of 2025.
What Eurostat reports
The total number of overnight stays in the EU is 1,321 million, 1.7% more than 1,299 million in the first half of 2025. Eurostat counts as an overnight stay every night a guest spends in accommodation. The data covers hotels and similar accommodation, holiday and other short-stay accommodation, and campsites.
Foreign and domestic guests
Overnight stays by guests from abroad grow by 2.5%, and by domestic guests by 0.9%. Foreign guests account for 48.9% of all overnight stays in the EU. This means that, on the EU average, growth comes more from foreign guests, but most overnight stays are still by domestic guests.
Countries differ greatly. The highest share of foreign guests is in Malta (95.2%), Cyprus (92.6%) and Luxembourg (87.7%). The lowest is in Germany (18.5%), Poland (19.8%) and Romania (23.0%). Eurostat also names countries with growth and with a fall in overnight stays, but we do not retell those figures here, because the wording in the publication is unclear.
And Bulgaria?
Bulgaria is not named in the publication, so it cannot tell us how the half-year went here. A more suitable source for Bulgaria is the monthly data of the National Statistical Institute, which is published separately. We make no forecast for the rest of the year: this is only a report on the first half.
What to do with the EU average
The EU average is a convenient frame, but it is not a yardstick for one small property. Compare the first half of this year with the same period of last year in your own records: the number of overnight stays, how many of your guests are foreign, and where the enquiries come from.
If some of your guests are foreign, check how they see you before they arrive. The website is where a guest finds the rooms, the photos, the “from” price and an enquiry form. An enquiry is not a reservation and does not hold a room, so the team confirms availability separately.
ISKA Website is a website for a hotel or guest house that the owner maintains themselves through ISKA: draft, preview, publishing and rolling back to a previous version. It is offered by individual quote. If you are considering one, prepare photos and descriptions of the rooms.