Covid-19: Greece Overnights Among Hardest Hit in EU

Greece is feeling the impact of Covid-19 for one more year reporting a 74 percent drop – among the highest declines in the EU – in the number of overnight stays between April 2020 and March 2021, according to the latest data released by Eurostat.

Overnight stays at EU tourist accommodation facilities dropped by 61 percent over the April 2020-March 2021 (1.1 billion) period against 12 months before the Covid-19 outbreak. The EU’s statistical service said the data translates into a drop of 1.7 billion from the 2.8 billion nights spent between April 2019 and March 2020.

Other EU countries seeing major declines include Malta, where the number of overnights was down by 80 percent, Spain (-78 percent), Portugal (-70 percent) and Hungary (-66 percent).

Eurostat analysts note that the figures confirm the blow to the tourism sector, which has and continues to suffer due to travel restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19, and now of its Delta variant.

According to the same data, the health crisis also hit domestic tourism with the total number of nights spent by travelers down by 45 percent, with the exceptions of Malta and Slovenia, which were the only two EU countries to mark increases by 20 percent and 25 percent, respectively.