Malta had highest share in EU of nights spent by non-residents at 96%

by Gozo News · January 26, 2016

In 2015, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the European Union (EU) is expected to have reached a new record level of around 2.8 billion nights, up by 3.2% compared with 2014.

Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU, notably driven by the rise in the nights spent by non-residents.

After the two Mediterranean island Member States, Malta (96%) and Cyprus (94%), the highest shares of nights spent by non-residents in 2015 were registered in Croatia (92%), Greece (79%) and Austria (71%), while residents made up the largest part of total tourism nights spent notably in Poland and Romania (both with only 19% of tourism nights by non-residents), Germany (21%) and Sweden (25%).

In 2015, Spain (421 million nights, +4.3% compared with 2014) reinforced its top position in terms of tourism nights, ahead of France (413 mn, +2.8%), Italy (385 mn, +1.8%) and Germany (379 mn, +3.3%). Malta stood at 8.9 mn, almost on a par with 2014, which stood at 8.5 mn.

These early estimates, which include nights spent whether for business or leisure, come from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in 2015 grew in the majority of Member States for which data are available, with the largest increases being observed in Romania (+15.9%), Slovakia (+11.5%), the Czech Republic (+10.3%), Croatia (+7.9%), Slovenia (+7.5%) and Poland (+6.9%). Malta stood at 1.3%.

In contrast, the largest fall was recorded in Lithuania (-7.4%), followed at a distance by Latvia (-1.3%) and Bulgaria (-1.1%).

In the EU, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments by non-residents grew faster (+3.5%) between 2014 and 2015 that those spent by residents (+3.0%). In 2015, the largest increases in nights spent by non-residents were observed in Romania (+18.3%), Slovakia (+12.8%) and Sweden (+9.6%), and by residents also in Romania (+15.3%), ahead of the Czech Republic (+15.0%).

In absolute figures, Spain (268 million nights, or 21% of the total of nights spent by non-residents in the EU), Italy (191 mn, or 15%) and France (134 mn, or 11%) recorded the highest number of nights spent by non-residents in their tourism accommodation establishments.