European tourism has seen an average drop of 61% for the period April 2020 and March 2021 due to the travel restrictions as well as other precautionary measures taken in response to the pandemic according to the latest figures from Eurostat.
Greece was amongst those EU countries with the highest dramatic drop in the number of nights spent at tourist accommodation with a drop of -74% with Malta recording the highest at -80%, Spain (-78%), Portugal (-70%) and Hungary (-66%). Meanwhile Netherlands and Denmark both reported drops of 36%.
According to the Eurostat data, between April 2020 and March 2021 compared with the preceding 12 months, the nights spent by non-residents of the country (international guests) fell by 79%, while nights spent by residents (domestic guests) fell by 45%.
During this period, the number of nights spent by international guests decreased in all EU Member States with available data, with the largest decreases observed in Spain (-90%), Romania (-89%), Hungary and Finland (both -88%) as well as Czechia (-87%).
Among the EU countries, only residents of Slovenia (+25%) and Malta (+20%) spent more tourism nights inside their own country compared with the 12 prior months. However, given the relative small importance of domestic tourism in these countries, this increase could not offset the sharp drop in international tourism.
RELATED: Air transport: Total recovery in Greece by 2024 – Greek City Times
