South Aegean, Crete Among Top 30 EU Destinations in 2015

Elafonisi Beach, Crete

The South Aegean region and the island of Crete were among the 30 most popular tourism destinations in the European Union in 2015, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Source: Eurostat

The South Aegean ranked 26^th and registered 23.4 million overnight stays by EU residents and non-residents in 2015, while Crete ranked 27^th with 23.3 million overnight stays.

The Canary Islands in Spain topped the list with 94 million overnight stays and were followed by Île-de-France with 76.8 million  and Catalonia with 75.5 million.

Among the top 30 tourist regions in 2015, six were located in Spain, France and Italy, four in Germany, two in Greece two in Austria, one in Ireland, one in the Netherlands and one in the United Kingdom (inner London).

Nearly 90% of overnight stays within the EU were spent by EU residents, while only 10 percent of overnight stays concerned non-EU residents.

Source: Eurostat

The United States topped the list of EU travelers’ popular destinations outside the European Union with a share of 13.8 percent in 2015. Turkey was second with 10.4 percent and Morocco third with 4.6 percent.

Greeks mostly traveled to Albania (53.8 percent) and Turkey (9.4 percent) outside the EU.