In European Union (EU) countries, the number of nights spent in tourist facilities such as hotels and hostels in the first half of this year exceeded the level before the Covid-19 outbreak.
The European Statistical Office (Eurostat) published nightly tourist accommodation data in EU member countries in the first half of 2023.
Accordingly, the EU tourism sector, which was negatively affected by the epidemic, recovered this year.
In the first half of this year, the number of accommodations in tourist facilities in EU countries reached the highest level in the first half of the last 10 years.
The number of overnight stays in tourist facilities, which was 1 billion 182 million in the first 6 months of 2019, the pre-pandemic period, reached 1 billion 193 million in the same period of 2023. Thus, the total number of overnight stays in tourist facilities in EU countries in the first half of this year was 11 million more than the 2019 period before the epidemic.
In the first 6 months of this year, overnight stays increased by 12.9 percent compared to last year.
On the other hand, tourism in EU countries came to a halt in 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic and the strict measures implemented.