LIVE from Brussels

EUROSTAT updated report on seasonality

On 25 June EUROSTAT published an updated report on seasonality.

These are the main findings of the report:

• The summer season (June-September) accounts for more than half (51.9%) of the total number of tourism nights spent by EU residents during the whole year.
• More than 60% of these nights were spent in their own country (domestic), while almost 40% of summer season tourism nights were spent abroad (outbound).
• July (16.1%) and August (17.2%) are the two months when EU residents spent most tourism nights during the year.
• When looking at age groups, more than a third of all tourism nights for residents aged 15-29 (36%) and 30-64 (35%) are spent during July and August, while this share fell to around a quarter (27%) for residents aged 65 and over, who preferred to spread their holidays more evenly throughout the year.
• For residents of a majority of EU Member States, the summer season represents more than half of all annual tourism nights. Among the noticeable exceptions are Malta (41.4% of tourism nights of residents spent during the summer season), Finland (42.8%), Denmark (44.4%), Romania (44.9%), the United Kingdom (45.7%), Germany (46.3%) and Estonia (46.8%). 
• The largest proportions of nights spent by residents in their own country are registered for Greece (89.7% of all summer tourism nights), Spain (87.3%), Romania (86.6%), Bulgaria (84.7%), France and Portugal (both 82.8%). In contrast, the highest shares of summer tourism nights spent abroad are recorded for residents of Luxembourg (99.2% of all summer tourism nights), Belgium (88.3%) and Malta (86.7%).
• August is the leading month of departure for residents of a narrow majority of EU Member States, just ahead of July. In particular, August has a notable share in both Italy (32.7%) and Greece (31.3%), while it is smallest in Denmark (8.6%) and Finland (8.8%). Five EU Member States show no significant difference (less than 1 percentage point) between July and August: France, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta and Austria. The share of July varies across Member States from just over 10% in Romania (10.4%) and the United Kingdom (10.6%), to more than 25% in Slovenia (25.4%), Greece (26.2%) and Italy (27.4%). Differences across Member States are less significant in June, all around 10%, while September accounts for less than 10% of annual tourism nights for residents of every EU Member State, except Lithuania (13.4%), the United Kingdom (12.2%), Cyprus (10.6%) and Germany (10.2%). Lithuania is the only EU Member State for which neither July nor August, but September is the peak month for overnight stays of its residents.