2022 EU nights booked on online platforms top 2019
Europe: During the fourth quarter of 2022 [Q4 2022], guests spent around 97 million nights in short-term rental accommodation in the EU, booked via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group or TripAdvisor, according to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union.
This corresponds to around +25 per cent compared with the same period in 2021. As such, platform tourism exceeded the levels [+10 per cent] recorded in the pre-pandemic Q4 2019, when platforms reported around 88 million guest nights.
In the entirety of 2022, guests spent around 547 million nights in EU short-term rental accommodation booked via online platforms, according to Eurostat. This indicates a robust recovery compared with 2021 [364 million nights; +50 per cent] and shows that nights spent even exceeded 2019 levels [512 million nights; + seven per cent]
While comparisons with 2021 document a robust recovery in all 31 countries [EU and EFTA countries], there were differences compared with 2019.
In 2022, the largest increases in nights spent compared with 2019 were recorded in Sweden [+33 per cent], France [+31 per cent] and Belgium [+23 per cent], however, 14 EU members were still lagging behind 2019 levels [pre-pandemic]. The most prominent decreases were recorded in Czechia [-36 per cent], Hungary [-27 per cent], Ireland and Estonia [each -23 per cent].
Coastal regions remained popular in the summer of 2022
Eurostat reported that traditional coastal holiday destinations remained popular in the summer of 2022 [Q3 2022]. The most popular regions for short-term rental accommodation booked via online platforms were Jadranska Hrvatska in Croatia [20 million nights], the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur [11 million] and the Spanish region of Andalusia [10 million].
In the top 20 regions, France had seven regions, Spain five, Italy four, and Croatia, Portugal, Greece and Romania had one each.
The data on short stay accommodation offered via Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and TripAdvisor is the result of a landmark data-sharing partnership between the European Commission and the four private collaborative economy platforms that was agreed in March 2020. Eurostat released its first key data on the European short-term rental sector in July 2021.
