Increase in tourist beds in the EU in 2022 to a total of 28,9 million, in more than 620 thousand tourist accommodations, show data from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, which shows a full recovery in terms of supply in the tourism sector compared to the pandemic and the period just before it.
It is noted that for Cyprus, Eurostat does not have at its disposal updated data regarding the available tourist beds for 2022.
Country data available shows a full recovery in tourist accommodation supply in 2022. Compared to 2020, when the pandemic began COVID-19, the number of beds increased by 3% (+765.900) and facilities by 4% (+24.400), while compared to 2019 both the number of beds (+1%, +150.400) and accommodation (+ 1%, +3.600).
A third of the available capacity among European countries was in Italy and France (5,2 and 5,1 million beds respectively). Spain and Germany followed, with 3,8 million (13% of the total) and 3,6 million (12%) beds.
Meanwhile, tourism from EU citizens to other Member States continues to be a significant part of tourism in Europe, although it has decreased compared to 2021.
In 2022, almost 2,8 billion overnight stays in EU tourist accommodation were recorded, of which 1,6 billion were domestic tourism, and 1,2 billion were international tourism.
Of these 1,2 billion, 65% of international tourism in the EU came from other EU countries. Although the share of tourists from other EU countries in international tourism remained significant in 2022, it was lower than in 2021 , when 75% of visitors came from other EU countries due to travel restrictions imposed mainly on travelers from third countries due to the pandemic.
Also, overnight stays by tourists from other European countries (outside the EU) in 2022 constituted 22% of the total, marking a significant increase compared to 2021 (+5,3 percentage points or p.m.).
Regarding tourists from outside Europe, 6% of international overnight stays in the EU in 2022 came from North America (+2,4 percentage points compared to 2021), while visitors from Asia accounted for 4% ( +1 percentage point), from Central and South America 2% (+0,8 percentage points), Africa almost 1% (unchanged) and Oceania 0,5% (+0,3 percentage points) .
The biggest change recorded in the EU tourism market between 2021 and 2022 was a slight decrease in the weight of tourism from other EU countries and an increase in tourism from all other regions of the world.
In particular, while in 2021 only 8% of overnight stays by visitors from other countries concerned tourists from countries outside Europe, in 2022 this percentage increased to 13%.
Source: KYPE