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Tourism in Europe on course for record

January 27, 2016

The number of nights spent in hotels and hostels in Europe reached a record high last year. Provisional figures show that an estimated 2.8 billion nights were booked within the EU in 2015.

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Cala Macarelleta Spanien Bucht Strand Urlaub
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Prismaarchivo

Eurostat, a European government statistics agency, made the announcement on Tuesday in Luxembourg. An increase of more than three percent is expected compared with 2014. Spain took the lead with around 421 million overnight stays, followed by France (413 million), Italy (385 million) and Germany (379 million). The number of overnighters in the EU is said to have risen steadily since 2009.

The biggest increases in overnight stays were recorded in Romania with 15.9 percent and Slovakia with 11.5 percent. The biggest drops according to Eurostat were seen in Lithuania (down 7 percent), Latvia (down 1.3 percent) and Bulgaria (down 1.1 percent).

The statistics cover bookings made by nationals and internationals for both business and pleasure. International tourism in particular saw a significant rise in 2015.

ak/nr (dpa, Eurostat)