The tourism industry in the European Union is almost as busy as it was in the last year before the corona pandemic. Hotels, bed and breakfasts and other accommodations in the country block provided more than 2.7 billion overnight stays last year.
That is much more than in 2020 and 2021, marked by corona and almost as much as in 2019.
In 2019, the last year before the corona pandemic paralyzed international travel, the European tourism industry accounted for just under 2.9 billion overnight stays. According to the European statistics agency Eurostat, the number of overnight stays increased monthly last year, and some months even reached the same level as the same month in 2019. Compared to 2021, the number of nights booked increased by more than 48 percent and compared to 2020, by more than 91 percent.
The Netherlands was one of the member states where the number of domestic and foreign tourists was higher last year than before the corona pandemic. This was also the case in Belgium and Denmark.
Despite high inflation, many companies in the tourism industry say that demand for vacations is still high. For example, the listed airlines EasyJet and Ryanair recently reported that demand for air travel is still strong.