Greece among EU Countries with Highest Increase in Overnights Last Year

Greece is among the countries that recorded the highest increase in the number of nights spent in hotels last year among all 28 European Union member states, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Thursday.

Eurostat’s estimates, which include nights spent whether for business or leisure, were based on available data of the first 10 months of 2014.

More specifically, tourism nights (non-residents and residents) in Greece increased by 6.9 percent in 2014 compared to the year before. In total, 98.3 million nights were spent at the country’s tourism accommodation establishments, of which 77.3 million were made by foreign visitors and 21.0 million were made by Greeks.

Greece was also among the EU countries with the highest shares of non-resident demand last year (79 percent), following Malta (96 percent), Cyprus (94 percent), Croatia (92 percent) and Luxembourg (88 percent). The lowest shares of nights spent by non-residents were in Romania (18 percent), Poland (19 percent) and Germany (20 percent).

When comparing the overnight visits made in 2014 with those of 2013, Eurostat data showed that non-resident overnight visits in Greece increased by eight percent. Overnight visits made by Greeks increased by 6.7 percent.

New record level of 2.7bn tourism nights in the EU28 in 2014

In 2014, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU is expected to have reached a new peak of around 2.7 billion nights, up by 1.7 percent compared with 2013. Following the decline observed in 2009 with the beginning of the financial crisis, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU over the last 5 years.