EU tourist stays neared pre-pandemic levels in 2022, Eurostat figures show

"The sector seems to be strongly rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic," said Eurostat.

Domestic travel saw the strongest recovery, already exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 0.7% to 1.53bn nights, while international tourism was still 12.6% below at 1.19bn nights.

The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in the EU in 2022 approached pre-pandemic levels, the bloc's statistics office Eurostat said.

The 27-nation bloc recorded 2.7bn nights spent in tourist accommodation last year, down by only 5.6% from 2019 levels, before Covid-19 inflicted heavy losses on the tourism industry due to border closures and lockdowns.