- EU residents took approximately 1.2bn tourism trips in 2024
- Around 29pc of trips were international destinations
- EU residents average roughly 3.1 tourism trips per head annually
- Europeans spend €1,053 per foreign trip compared with €303 domestic
- Irish travellers among highest daily spenders in Europe
Eurostat data sEUows that EU residents took approximately 1.2bn tourism trips in 2024 of which roughly 29pc were international destinations. Around 71pc of trips were domestic within the traveller’s home country while 29pc were international with 21pc to another EU member state and 8pc outside the EU. EU residents aged 15 and over take an average of roughly 3.1 tourism trips per head annually with domestic trips accounting for approximately 2.3 trips per head and international trips accounting for roughly 0.8 trips per head.
The propensity to choose an international destination over a domestic one varies depending on the country of origin. Residents of Luxembourg take 95.3pc of their trips abroad while Belgium records 76.8pc and Malta 64.5pc. Slovenia records 58.1pc, Austria 52.4pc, the Netherlands 52.1pc and Cyprus 51.9pc. Conversely only about 1 in 10 trips taken by residents of Romania are international with France and Spain also recording low outbound trip ratios due to strong domestic tourism markets.
Europeans spend more per trip when crossing borders averaging €1,053 for a foreign trip compared with €303 for a domestic trip. Outbound travellers from Ireland ranked among the highest daily spenders in Europe averaging roughly €133 to €143 per night on their travels.
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