In the first quarter of 2025, there were 452.4 million overnight stays in tourist accommodations across the EU, marking a slight decline of 0.2% compared with the same quarter of 2024. January recorded 139.0 million nights (+3.5% compared with January 2024), February 147.7 million (-0.8%) and March 167.7 million (-2.7%)

This information comes from monthly data on tourist accommodation up to March 2025 published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

The slight decreases in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the first quarter of 2024 can be attributed to holidays falling differently in the calendar year, causing a shift from February to March (school holidays around carnival) and – more significantly – from March to April (Easter).

Foreign visitors accounted for approximately 45.6% of all overnight stays in the first 3 months of 2025, with large differences among EU countries. The biggest share of foreign overnight stays at this period was recorded in Malta (91.2%), Cyprus (85.7%) and Luxembourg (80.4%).

By contrast, foreign guests accounted for only one-fifth of overnight stays in Poland (18.6%), Romania and Germany (20.1% and 20.2%, respectively).

In the first quarter of 2025, there was a small increase in nights spent by foreign visitors (+1.1% compared with the first quarter of 2024), while for domestic nights, a slight decline (-1.3%) was recorded. The largest increases in overnight stays by foreign visitors were recorded in Latvia (+18.5%), Malta (+17.2%) and Finland (+10.6%). At the other end of the range, the biggest drops of foreign visitors were recorded in Ireland (-23.1%), Croatia (-16.7%) and Sweden (-11.5%).