LSG Research Note 02 · September 2026
Updated 29 September 2026: added regional context using annual 2024 data. The original 2026 figures are unchanged.
Updated 13 October 2026: added 2025 EU-resident trip and expenditure context from Eurostat. The original 2026 accommodation-night figures, CSV and DOI remain unchanged.
European tourism is still growing in 2026, but the latest Eurostat data shows an important shift in where that growth is coming from: international demand is expanding faster than domestic demand.
For independent hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses, this matters because a market can look healthy in aggregate while the commercial opportunity differs sharply depending on how exposed a destination is to inbound guests.
Key findings
- The EU recorded 1.321 billion nights in tourist accommodation in the first half of 2026, up 1.7% from the first half of 2025.
- Foreign visitors accounted for 48.9% of all nights in the first half of 2026.
- Nights from foreign visitors grew by 2.5%, compared with 0.9% growth from domestic visitors — roughly 2.8 times faster.
- In Q1 2026, international tourism grew by 5.5% versus 1.7% for domestic tourism.
- In absolute terms, Q1 added about 11.4 million international nights and 4.2 million domestic nights. That means roughly 73% of the extra nights recorded in Q1 came from international guests.
International exposure varies dramatically by country
Foreign demand is not equally important in every market. Eurostat reported the following shares of foreign overnight stays in the first half of 2026:
| Market | Foreign share of nights |
|---|---|
| Malta | 95.2% |
| Cyprus | 92.6% |
| Luxembourg | 87.7% |
| Germany | 18.5% |
| Poland | 19.8% |
| Romania | 23.0% |
Regional exposure to international demand — 2024 data
Official evidence. In 2024, foreign visitors generated more accommodation nights than domestic visitors in 65 of the 244 EU regions covered by Eurostat, or 26.6%. Foreign guests accounted for 94.4% of nights in Kriti (Crete), 92.0% in Jadranska Hrvatska and 90.2% in Illes Balears. In contrast, 96.7% of nights in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern came from domestic visitors.
LSG interpretation. National averages are a starting point, not a ready-made target-market strategy. For a weak period, compare the destination's demand mix with the guests your property actually attracts in those months before choosing an offer or channel.
Apply it to your hotel. Choose the months you want to strengthen. Review your overnight stays by source market for the same months in previous years, then check current bookings and practical access to the destination. Treat any new target market as a hypothesis to test, not demand guaranteed by a regional share.
Limit. These are annual 2024 regional shares, not regional growth rates for 2026, booking-window measurements or proof of demand for a particular low-season weekend.
Source: Eurostat, Regions in Europe — 2026 edition, Tourism. Published 23 September 2026; reference year 2024.
EU residents' travel patterns and tourism expenditure — 2025
Official evidence. Eurostat reported 1.20 billion personal and professional trips by EU residents in 2025, up 1.4% from 2024, or about 17 million additional trips. Of the total, 848 million trips were domestic (70%) and 264 million were foreign trips within the EU (22%); together, 92% of trips stayed within the EU. The remaining 8% had destinations outside the EU.
Domestic trips were more numerous, but expenditure was higher on foreign trips: €266.2 billion on domestic trips versus €379.4 billion on foreign trips. Accommodation accounted for €90.3 billion (34%) of domestic-trip expenditure and €131.3 billion (35%) of foreign-trip expenditure.
LSG interpretation. Trip frequency, tourism expenditure and accommodation nights are different indicators. The figures strengthen the case for analysing source markets and cross-border travel potential, but they do not show that international hotel demand is stronger in every destination or weak period.
Apply it to your hotel. For a weak date, compare the source markets already generating bookings with the markets that have practical access to your destination, then test whether the offer and direct-booking route are relevant to those travellers.
Limit. These 2025 figures cover trips made by EU residents and associated expenditure. They are not hotel-only statistics, do not measure room occupancy, and should not be compared directly with 2026 accommodation-night growth as if they were the same metric.
Source: Eurostat — More than 90% of EU residents’ trips are inside the EU, published 9 October 2026. Source datasets: tour_dem_tttot and tour_dem_extot.
What this means commercially
A hotel in a highly international market and a hotel in a mainly domestic market should not respond to the same weak period in the same way.
Where international demand is structurally important, low-season planning may need to account for longer booking windows, source-market language, airline access, international OTAs, travel advisors, cross-border B2B demand and destination-specific reasons to travel outside peak months.
Where domestic demand dominates, local partnerships, drive markets, repeat guests, weekday corporate demand and shorter booking windows may matter more.
Growth does not remove the weak-date problem
The first half of 2026 was a record first half for EU tourist accommodation, but growth at EU level does not guarantee that every hotel, destination or month benefits equally.
This is the same distinction highlighted in LSG Research Note 01: aggregate tourism growth and property-level weak periods can coexist.
A practical question for independent hotels
Before reacting to a quiet period, ask:
- Is the missing demand primarily domestic or international?
- Which source markets normally book these dates?
- Which source markets generated overnight stays at your property in the months you want to improve? Compare the same months in previous years, not only the annual average.
- Has the booking window changed?
- Is the current offer understandable and relevant to those guests?
- Which direct, partner or B2B channels can reach them?
The answer should influence both the offer and the commercial route to market.
Sources
- Eurostat — EU tourism nights up by 1.7% in first half of 2026
- Eurostat — EU tourism nights in the first quarter of 2026 up 3%
- Eurostat Statistics Explained — Tourism statistics: nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments
- Eurostat — Regions in Europe, 2026 edition, Tourism. Published 23 September 2026; regional accommodation data refer to 2024. Publication record.
- Eurostat — More than 90% of EU residents’ trips are inside the EU. Published 9 October 2026; 2025 trip and expenditure data.
Methodology and limitations
The growth comparison above uses published Eurostat figures for resident and non-resident guest nights. The “roughly 2.8 times faster” statement is a simple ratio of the published first-half growth rates (2.5% / 0.9%). The Q1 contribution share is calculated from Eurostat’s published absolute increases of 11.4 million international nights and 4.2 million domestic nights.
These calculations are descriptive. They do not measure profitability, hotel performance or future demand, and national-level tourism data may not represent every destination or property.
The regional supplement reproduces Eurostat's published annual 2024 figures, including its reported 26.6% share of 244 regions. Annual regional shares and the H1/Q1 2026 growth indicators describe different periods and geographical levels; comparing them does not establish a time trend. Regional totals do not identify the demand mix of an individual property or its low-season months. The practical recommendations are LSG interpretation, not findings measured by these regional statistics.
The 2025 EU-resident travel supplement uses Eurostat trip counts and tourism-expenditure data. Trips, expenditure and accommodation nights measure different phenomena and are not combined into a single growth series. Foreign-trip expenditure also covers trips outside the EU, while the 264 million figure refers specifically to foreign trips within the EU.
See the full Low Season Growth Research Methodology.
About the author
Vincenzo Proto is the founder of Low Season Growth. His work focuses on hotel seasonality, weak-date diagnosis, direct bookings, hospitality commercial strategy and source-backed tourism research.
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How to cite this research
If you reference this analysis in an article, report or presentation, please cite: Low Season Growth, “International Tourism Is Growing Faster Than Domestic Demand in Europe: LSG Research Note 02,” September 2026. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22938213.
Persistent DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22938213
The regional supplement was added to this live page on 29 September 2026. This update does not revise the original DOI deposit or the 2026 CSV dataset. For the supplement, cite this updated page and the Eurostat regional source directly.
The 2025 EU-resident travel and expenditure supplement was added on 13 October 2026. It does not revise the original DOI deposit or 2026 CSV dataset. Cite this updated page and the Eurostat 9 October 2026 release for the supplement.
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