EU tourism records surge of 3.4% YoY overnight stays in Q1 2026
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Foreign visitors accounted for 46.6% of all overnight stays during the first three months of 2026.
The European Union’s tourism sector recorded 471.1 million overnight stays in tourist accommodation in Q1 2026, a 3.4% year on year increase compared to the same period in 2025. The growth is primarily fuelled by strong foreign visitor numbers and demonstrates a strong robust performance in the first quarter of 2026. Monthly growth was consistent, with March achieving the highest increase at +3.7% (173.2 million) while January recorded 143.5 million nights (+3.2% compared with January 2025) and February 154.4 million (+3.4%).
At the country level, Ireland registered the highest increase in nights spent in tourist accommodation in the first quarter of the year, at 35.3%, ahead of Malta (11.1%) and Denmark (9.3%). Among the 9 EU countries, that saw a decline in the share of visitors, Lithuania recorded the biggest decrease (-12.9%), followed by Romania (-6.7%) and Luxembourg (-3.8%).
Foreign visitors accounted for approximately 46.6% of all overnight stays in the first 3 months of 2026, with large differences among EU countries.
The biggest share of foreign overnight stays during this period was recorded in Malta (93.3%), Cyprus (85.6%) and Luxembourg (85.1%). By contrast, foreign guests accounted for only around one-fifth of overnight stays in Germany (19.9%), Poland (20.2%) and Romania (22.4%).
Compared with the first quarter of 2025, there was an increase in both nights spent by foreign (+5.5%) and domestic visitors (+1.7%). The largest increases in overnight stays by foreign visitors were recorded in Ireland (+42.3%), Lithuania (+24.1%) and Slovakia (+15.4%). At the other end of the range, the biggest drops in foreign visitors were recorded in Latvia (-7.5%), Bulgaria (-4.3%) and Belgium (-4.0%).
