Eurostat: Crete and South Aegean Among EU Regions with Most Foreign Tourists

Photo source: Region of South Aegean

Over a third of all overnight stays by foreign tourists in the EU are concentrated in ten popular tourist destinations, including several Greek islands, according to Eurostat data for 2023.

Specifically, data analysis from last year, which was a record year for many tourism metrics, shows that the regions with the highest number of overnight stays by foreign tourists were the Canary Islands, with 83.2 million overnight stays, followed by Spain’s Balearic Islands and the Croatian coast.

The top 10 regions also include Spain’s Catalonia and Andalusia; Greece’s South Aegean – which includes islands such as Mykonos and Rhodes – and Crete; the Greater Paris area; Italy’s Veneto; and Austria’s Tyrol.

Collectively, according to the EU’s statistical authority, these ten regions accounted for 37.6 percent of overnight stays by foreign tourists last year.

According to Eurostat, in 58 out of the 231 regions within the EU, the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists exceeded the number of domestic visitors traveling within their respective countries. This highlights the significant role that foreign tourists play in several popular EU destinations, including some in Greece.

Notably, over 90 percent of nights spent in the following areas were by foreign tourists: Crete (94.5 percent), Ionian islands, which include Corfu and Kefalonia, (93.6 percent), and South Aegean (92 percent).

Outside of Greece, destinations such as Malta (93.1 percent), the coastal region of Croatia (92.5 percent), Cyprus (90.8 percent), and Tyrol (90.7 percent) also demonstrate a strong reliance on foreign visitors.

In contrast, the regions with the highest percentages of domestic tourists in 2023 included the suburbs of Paris, the French Alps, and the French Riviera.