The European Office for Statistics, Eurostat, has said that during the first half of 2022, guests spent around 199 million nights in short-term rental accommodation booked via Booking.com, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, or Expedia Group in the European Union.

According to Eurostat, the monthly guest nights spent in the EU so far this year have already exceeded the levels registered in the first half of 2019, when the platform reported around 193 million guest nights.

Additionally, the guest nights spent in the EU have also increased y 138 per cent compared to the same period in 2021, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

“Following a gradual recovery of booking numbers during the second half of 2021, in the first half of 2022, bookings reached and exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time,” the statement of Eurostat reads.

Eurostat explains that in the first quarter of 2022, 67.4 million nights were booked, compared with 27.1 million during the same period in 2021 and 64.5 million nights in 2019. The number of guest nights spent in the EU increased to 132.0 million nights in the second quarter, compared with 56.7 million in 2021 and 128.8 million in 2019.

Data from Eurostat further show that 15 European regions registered more than one million guest nights in the first quarter of 2022.

France and Spain had five regions each in the top 15 regions. They all had over one million guest nights booked via online platforms in the first three months of 2022. Italy has two regions, and Portugal, Poland, and Austria have one region each that registered more than one million guest nights.

The top 15 regions list also includes alpine regions, such as Rhône-Alpes in France and Tirol in Austria.

“This top 15 regions list includes alpine regions, such as Tirol in Austria and Rhône-Alpes in France, where in 2019, 42.2 per cent and 31.5 per cent, respectively, of nights spent were registered in the first quarter. In the EU as a whole, that same share was only 12.6 per cent,” Eurostat stated.

Additionally, it was noted that the second cluster of popular regions includes destinations along the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

 

Source: schengenvisainfo.com