Greece Among EU Countries With Highest Share Of Domestic Trips In 2012

Residents of Greece had the highest share of domestic trips in 2012, along with the residents of Romania and Spain, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Eurostat’s online publication “Tourism trips of Europeans” showed that the highest shares of trips of EU residents within their country (domestic trips) were observed in Romania (95 percent), Spain and Greece (both 92 percent), Portugal (90 percent) and France (89 percent). On the other hand, the largest proportions of trips abroad (outbound trips) were registered by residents of Luxembourg (97 percent), Belgium (78percent), Malta (60 percent) and Slovenia (55 percent).

According to the data, Greek residents made 7,087 trips in 2012. Out of these trips, 8.2 percent were outbound trips. Greece’s top three destinations for outbound trips (business and holiday) in 2012 were Albania, UK and Germany.

More into Eurostat’s publication, the average length of stay varied from more than seven nights for residents of Greece (7.5 nights), Cyprus (7.2) and Belgium (7.1) to less than four nights for residents of Latvia (3.1), Finland (3.4), Denmark (3.6) and Hungary (3.7).

In 2012, 85 percent of trips abroad by EU residents were in Europe

EU28 residents made 1.2 billion trips of one night or more in 2012. Almost half of these trips (48 percent) were for holidays and leisure, 35 percent for visits to relatives and friends, 13 percent for business and 4 percent for other reasons. The average trip length was 5.2 nights.

Of the number of total trips, 76 percent were made within the country of residence (domestic trips), while 24 percent were made outside (outbound trips). For these outbound trips, the main destination for EU28 residents was clearly Europe (85.4 percent), then followed Asia (4.5 percent), Africa (4.1 percent), North America (3.8 percent), Central and South America (1.9 percent) and Oceania (0.4 percent).

Spain was among the top three places to go for residents in 11 EU countries, followed by Germany, Italy, France and the UK.

Greece was among the top three outbound destinations of trips of residents from Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania.

The EU data also revealed that the most common way Europeans went on holiday was by car – 65 percent.

On the Greek side, 66 percent of travelers chose a car as their main means of transport in 2012 while 8.4 percent chose to travel by airplane, 1.2 percent chose to ride a bus or coach and 13.8 percent traveled by water vessels.

Eurostat’s online publication “Tourism trips of Europeans” can be found here.