Brussels, 29/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Tourism in the EU hit a new record level in 2014, with France remaining the top destination despite a slight drop-off in numbers last year, according to figures published by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office on Thursday 29 January.
In 2014, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU reached a new peak of around 2.7 billion nights, up by 1.7% compared with 2013, Eurostat says. Following the decline observed in 2009 with the beginning of the financial crisis, there has been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU over the last 5 years. This pattern can be observed for nights spent by both residents and non-residents.
France continued to be the top destination, with 403 million nights, though this is a slight fall (1.2%) from 2013. Following closely behind are Spain, with 401 million nights, an increase of 3.1%, and Italy, 370 million nights, down 1.8% and Germany, 366 nights, up 2.9%.
Latvia, Belgium, Portugal and Greece saw a tourist boom in 2014, with their number of nights rising by 11.1%, 7.2%, 7.1% and 6.9% respectively. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the most significant falls were recorded in Slovakia (5.5%), Finland (1.9%) and Italy (1.8%).
Taking only non-resident demand into account, Spain attracted the highest number of European tourists last year, with 260 million nights, followed by Italy, 184 million nights. (IL)