A high concentration of tourists in a specific destination may suggest unbalanced tourism development, stressed the European Commission on the occasion of the publication of new data from the EU Tourism Dashboard on Tuesday 29 April.
Almost 63% of overnight stays in 2023 were in coastal or urban tourist destinations, which account for just 33% of the EU’s total surface area. The intensity and seasonality of tourism, i.e. the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation divided by the resident population and the number of nights spent during the three most visited months as a proportion of the total number of nights spent, are higher in Croatia and Greece.
The combination of these two phenomena points to potential risks associated with heavy dependence on the tourism industry and a high concentration of activity. This makes these destinations particularly sensitive to sudden sectoral shocks.
Malta and Austria have a high level of tourism, despite a very low level of seasonality. Conversely, Bulgaria is the second most seasonal tourist destination, but its tourism intensity is fairly low.
Read the Dashboard: https://aeur.eu/f/gn4 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)