Outbound tourism is a major part of travel demand in Europe. In 2024, EU residents made more than 343 million foreign tourism trips, and foreign trips lasted 7.8 nights on average. Most outbound travel stayed within the European Union, while accommodation and transport made up the largest shares of foreign-trip spending.
These statistics describe residents aged 15 and over and trips with at least one overnight stay outside the usual environment. “Foreign” or “outbound” means a destination outside the traveller’s country of residence, so the figures include both personal and professional travel unless otherwise stated. Totals and percentages are rounded by Eurostat, and the measurements refer to 2024 rather than 2026.
Table of contents
- The scale of EU outbound travel
- Domestic travel still dominates trip volume
- Where EU residents travel abroad
- How long outbound trips last
- Purpose and transport choices
- Foreign-trip spending
- Accommodation and nights
The scale of EU outbound travel
EU residents made nearly 1.2 billion tourism trips with at least one overnight stay in 2024 and spent almost 6 billion tourism nights away. Personal travel accounted for 89.7% of those trips, while professional travel represented 10.3%.
The number of people taking personal trips was also substantial. Nearly 249 million EU residents aged 15 or over, equivalent to 65% of that population, took at least one personal overnight trip during 2024. This is a participation measure: it counts residents who travelled at least once, rather than the total number of trips.
Travel demand was concentrated in the largest member-state populations. Residents of Germany made 277 million tourism trips, followed by residents of France with 240 million and Spain with 149 million. Together, these three countries accounted for 55.9% of all tourism trips made by EU residents.
The overall trip count includes domestic and foreign travel. That distinction matters when interpreting outbound tourism statistics, because a high national total does not necessarily mean that most trips crossed an international border. Eurostat’s 2024 data show a clear split between the large volume of domestic travel and the longer average duration of foreign travel.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”; Eurostat, “Explore tourism trips of Europeans”.
Domestic travel still dominates trip volume
Domestic trips accounted for 71.3% of all trips made by EU residents in 2024. They also represented 55.3% of all tourism nights. In other words, trips within the resident’s own country were more common, but foreign trips generally generated more nights per trip.
France recorded 204 million domestic trips in 2024, equal to 24% of all domestic trips made by EU residents. Germany was the largest source of foreign travel: German residents made more than 114 million foreign trips, representing 33% of all foreign trips by EU residents.
The share of foreign travel varied sharply between countries. Foreign trips represented 95.3% of all tourism trips by residents of Luxembourg, 76.8% for residents of Belgium, and 64.5% for residents of Malta. The share was also above half in Slovenia, at 58.1%; Austria, at 52.4%; and the Netherlands, at 52.1%.
| Resident country | Foreign trips as a share of all tourism trips, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Luxembourg | 95.3% |
| Belgium | 76.8% |
| Malta | 64.5% |
| Slovenia | 58.1% |
| Austria | 52.4% |
| Netherlands | 52.1% |
These differences reflect the geography of each resident population and the distinction between trips and nights. The figures do not say that every resident travelled abroad, nor do they measure inbound visitors arriving in these countries.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”.
Where EU residents travel abroad
EU residents made more than 343 million foreign tourism trips in 2024. About 250 million of these trips had another EU country as their main destination. Domestic and intra-EU foreign trips together made up 92.2% of all overnight tourism trips by EU residents.
Longer trips were also predominantly European. Among EU-resident trips lasting at least four nights, 85.8% were spent within the EU in 2024. This indicates that the EU’s internal travel market remained central even when the measure is limited to trips that lasted beyond a short break.
The balance between intra-EU and extra-EU travel differed by country. Trips outside the EU accounted for 19.5% of trips by residents of Ireland, 17.3% of trips by residents of Luxembourg, and 16.7% of trips by residents of Malta. These are shares of trips by residents, not shares of all EU outbound trips.
Eurostat’s country-level figures also show the importance of intra-EU destinations. Foreign trips within the EU represented 78% of all trips by residents of Luxembourg, 62% of all trips by residents of Belgium, and 48% of all trips by residents of Malta in 2024.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”; Eurostat, “Wanderlust within: 92% of EU residents’ trips are intra-EU”.
How long outbound trips last
The average EU-resident foreign trip lasted 7.8 nights in 2024, exactly twice the average domestic trip length of 3.9 nights. This difference helps explain why foreign trips represented a larger share of tourism nights than of total trip volume.
There was variation between residents of different countries. Residents of the Netherlands had the longest average foreign trip, at 9.1 nights. For domestic travel, residents of Greece recorded the longest average trip, at 10.0 nights.
Short trips were common across the overall market. Trips of one to three nights represented 56.3% of all EU-resident tourism trips, while trips of four to seven nights represented 27.7%. Combined, trips lasting no more than one week accounted for 84.0% of all tourism trips.
Professional travel was even more concentrated in short stays: 94.5% of professional trips lasted no more than one week, and 75.6% lasted no more than three nights. By contrast, only 9.6% of domestic trips lasted more than one week, while trips abroad lasting more than one week represented 32.0% of foreign trips.
The duration figures refer to nights, not calendar days, and the categories describe trips rather than individual travellers. They should therefore be used to compare trip patterns, not to estimate how long a typical resident spent abroad across the entire year.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”.
Purpose and transport choices
EU residents made more than 123 million professional trips in 2024. Domestic destinations accounted for 72.1% of these professional trips, which means that business travel was more domestically oriented than total tourism travel was internationally oriented.
Transport choices changed when the destination was foreign. Across all EU-resident tourism trips, motor vehicles were the main mode for 64.1%, followed by air transport at 16.2% and rail at 13.2%. For foreign trips specifically, airplanes were the main transport mode for 49.8%, motor vehicles for 36.4%, and rail for 6.1%.
| Main transport mode | All tourism trips | Foreign trips |
|---|---|---|
| Motor vehicles | 64.1% | 36.4% |
| Air transport | 16.2% | 49.8% |
| Rail | 13.2% | 6.1% |
Water transport was particularly important for residents of Malta: waterways were the main transport mode for 42.2% of trips made by Maltese residents in 2024. This is a resident-country result across trips, not a general share for every foreign destination.
The transport comparison also illustrates why outbound travel should not be treated as a single uniform market. Domestic trips are more likely to be compatible with road travel, while international trips more often use air transport, although the data do not provide a separate mode breakdown for every individual route.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”.
Foreign-trip spending
EU residents spent an average of €1,053 on trips abroad in 2024. Across all foreign trips, total expenditure reached €360.7 billion. The average is a reported Eurostat measure for foreign trips; it should not be combined with the rounded trip total to create a new estimate.
Accommodation was the largest reported spending category, accounting for 35.4% of foreign-trip expenditure, or €127.7 billion. Transport represented 31.9%, equal to €115.1 billion.
| Foreign-trip spending category | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | 35.4% | €127.7 billion |
| Transport | 31.9% | €115.1 billion |
Together, accommodation and transport accounted for 67.3% of foreign-trip expenditure according to the published shares. The remaining expenditure is not itemised here because the supplied Eurostat figures do not provide additional quantified categories in this dataset.
The spending totals measure expenditure on foreign trips by EU residents in 2024. They are not forecasts, do not describe spending by inbound visitors, and should not be read as a price index or as household spending across all travel-related purchases.
Source: Eurostat, “Wanderlust within: 92% of EU residents’ trips are intra-EU”; Eurostat, “Explore tourism trips of Europeans”.
Accommodation and nights
Rented accommodation was used for 72.0% of nights on EU-resident foreign trips in 2024. Among those rented-accommodation nights, hotels or similar accommodation accounted for 53.5%, while rented accommodation other than hotels or campsites accounted for 37.0%.
Looking across all tourism nights, hotels or similar accommodation represented 31.2% of nights spent by EU residents. Accommodation provided free by relatives or friends represented 27.3% of all tourism nights.
These measures use different denominators, so they should not be compared as if they were parts of one single percentage distribution. The 72.0% figure concerns nights on foreign trips and rented accommodation; the 53.5% and 37.0% figures describe the composition of rented-accommodation nights; and the 31.2% and 27.3% figures concern all tourism nights.
Taken together, the accommodation data show both the scale of commercial lodging and the importance of non-commercial stays. Hotels remain a substantial part of the market, but visits using accommodation supplied free by relatives or friends also account for a large share of total tourism nights.
Source: Eurostat, “Tourism statistics - characteristics of tourism trips”.