A curve up: In almost all EU countries, the number of overnight stays has increased in the past year. In total, hotels and hostels in Iceland to Malta totaled more than 3.1 billion, an increase of 2.2 per cent over 2017. The estimated figures for business and leisure travel were reported by the European statistics office Eurostat in Luxembourg.

However, the most popular tourist destination in the EU, Spain , recorded a decline of 0.9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 467 million overnight stays. The causes were not reported by Eurostat. Spain had to fight a political crisis in Catalonia in 2018.

Germany is in fourth place with 419 million overnight stays (plus 4.3 percent), behind France (444 million) and Italy (429 million). The largest increases with comparatively low numbers were recorded in Latvia (plus 8.3 percent, 5.4 million), Lithuania (7.7 percent, 7.9 million) and Malta (6.5 percent, 10.2 million), followed by Poland, Romania and Belgium.

In addition to Spain, fewer travelers also stayed in Ireland (minus 1.5 percent, 33.4 percent) and Luxembourg (minus 4.3 percent, 2.8 percent). Since 2009, the number of overnight stays in the EU has increased continuously, according to Eurostat. This was mainly due to cross-border travel. In Germany, the share of overnight stays of domestic guests in the total number of 79 percent is particularly high. For comparison: in France, 68 percent, in Spain, only 36 percent.