Eurostat: 2013 Sets Record In Overnight Stays In Greek Hotels

Hotel in Imerovigli, Santorini, (credit: Wikipedia)

Greece recorded the highest increase (11.7 percent) in nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in 2013, Eurostat said on Wednesday. The EU executive’s statistics service said nights spent in the EU 28 grew 1.6 pct in 2013 compared to the previous year.

According to AMNA, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU28 since 2003, only interrupted in 2008 and 2009, coinciding with the beginning of the financial crisis. Each year since 2010 has seen new record levels.

The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in 2013 increased in nearly all EU member-states, for which data are available, except for Italy (-4.6 pct), Cyprus (-3.7 pct), the Czech Republic (-1.2 pct), Finland (-0.7 pct) and Belgium (-0.5 pct).

The largest increases were recorded in Greece (+11.7 pct), Malta (+7.8 pct), Latvia (+7.3 pct), the United Kingdom (+6.5 pct), Bulgaria (+6.2 pct), Slovakia (+5.5 pct) and Hungary (+5.0 pct).

Among the member states for which data are available, the highest number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in 2013 were recorded in France (405 million nights, +1.1 pct compared with 2012), Spain (387 mn, +1.0 pct), Italy (363 mn, -4.6 pct), Germany (355 mn, +1.3 pct) and the United Kingdom (320 mn, +6.5 pct). These five member-states accounted for 70 pct of the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU28.

In 2013, non-residents accounted for 45 pct of the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU28 compared with 55 pct for residents. After the two Mediterranean islands, Malta (96 pct) and Cyprus (93 pct), the highest shares of nights spent by non-residents were registered in Croatia (92 pct), Greece (79 pct), Austria (71 pct) and Latvia (70 pct), and the lowest in Romania (18 pct), Germany and Poland (both 20 pct) and Sweden (23 pct).

In the EU28, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments by non-residents grew by 4.8% between 2012 and 2013, while nights spent by residents decreased by 0.8 pct. In 2013, the largest increases for non-residents were observed in the United Kingdom (+16.7 pct), Greece (+13.2 pct) and Latvia (+9.4 pct), and for residents in Greece (+6.7 pct), Estonia (+6.1 pct), Bulgaria and Slovakia (both +5.3 pct).