Eurostat: Overnight Stays in Greece Up in 2017

The number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation establishments in Greece in 2017 is expected to exceed 106 million, up by 4.8 percent compared to 2016, according to preliminary figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday.

According to the data, 80 percent of these overnight stays (or in absolute numbers 85.7 million nights) in 2017 were made by non residents (inbound tourists) and increased by 7.1 percent compared to the year before. On the other hand, overnight stays in Greece by residents (domestic tourists traveling inside their own country of residence) showed a 3.4 percent decrease, compared to 2016.

Overall, in 2017, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the European Union is expected to have reached more than 3.2 billion, up by 5.1 percent compared with 2016.

Last year, Spain retained its lead with 471 million overnights (3.6 increase compared with 2016), ahead of France with 431 million overnight stays (up by 6.6 percent), Italy with 425 million overnights (up by 5.4 percent) and Germany with 400 million overnight stays (up by 2.7 percent).

Eurostat’s data showed that the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in 2017 grew in nearly all Member States with the largest increases being observed in Latvia (12 percent), Slovenia (11.3 percent) and Croatia (10.6 percent), followed by Portugal (eight percent), the Czech Republic (7.7 percent) and Cyprus (7.3 percent). In contrast, the only slight fall was registered in Luxembourg (down by one percent).

In the EU, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation by non-residents grew faster (up 6.9 percent) between 2016 and 2017 than those spent by residents (up 3.5 percent).

Almost every EU Member State recorded an increase in the number of tourism nights spent by non-residents, with the exception being Luxembourg (down by 0.6 percent).

In absolute figures, Spain recorded the highest number of nights spent by non-residents in tourist accommodation establishments with 307 million nights or 19 percent of the total of nights spent.