According to a data, the European Office for Statistics, countries with the highest share of tourism gross value include those that are considerably tourism-oriented such as Croatia (11 per cent), Portugal (eight per cent) and Spain (seven per cent).
In addition, countries like Italy and Austria experienced a total share of tourism in total gross value added of six and five per cent, respectively.
Moreover, the highest tourism direct gross value added was recorded in Germany, where €124 billion were added to the economy, followed by Italy (€100 billion) and France (€87 billion).
The average share of tourism direct gross value added in the economy in 2019 stood at 4.5 per cent for all EU.
However, these rates decreased significantly in the first year of the pandemic, with the tourism direct gross value added dropping by 32 per cent.
In addition, the share of the tourism sector in the economy dropped by a total of one percentage point, which corresponded to €500 million less daily direct gross value added in 2020 compared to the previous year.
In 2020, among the 64 industries in the economy, three of four that witnessed over a 25 per cent drop in gross value added were tourism-related industries such as travel services which decreased by 67 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, followed by air transport (66 per cent) and hospitality (41 per cent).
A recent report revealed that inbound tourism expenditure in 2023 stands at €436,510 in total, with €381,362 spent by tourists and €55,149 by same-day visitors.
The expenditure level varies between countries, with the highest being recorded in Spain (€82,725), France (€65,403) and Italy (€55,437).
Countries, where the highest expenditure levels were recorded by tourists, include Italy (€51,824), Germany (€41,025) and Portugal (€20,535), while there is no available data for Greece, Spain and Croatia.
As per countries with the lowest tourism expenditure, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania are the most affected, with €1,296, €1,499 and €1,725 in total tourism expenditure, respectively.
On the other hand, Portugal, Ireland and Croatia have recorded the highest inbound tourism expenditure, in terms of overnight visitors and same-day visitors.
In other words, 97 per cent of inbound tourism expenditure in Portugal came from overnight tourists, around 96 per cent in Ireland and 94 per cent in Croatia.
Luxembourg, Slovakia and Latvia, on the other hand, received the most same-day visitors.
Tags: EU economy, Tourism, European Office for Statistics, inbound tourism
