(CN) — Bookings for short-term rentals in the European Union are rebounding after the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic but have not returned to historically high levels recorded in 2019, according to experimental Eurostat statistics compiled as part of an agreement between the European Commission and Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor.
The data, which reflects bookings from the 27 EU countries over four years, indicated an increase of 33.9% between 2020 and 2021, although last year's total of 364 million nights booked is still 29% below the record of 512 million in 2019.
The study went back to 2018, when the four private platforms booked roughly 442 million room nights. Bookings then increased 15.8% in 2019, but plunged 46.9% as the pandemic gripped the continent to a four-year low of 272 million nights booked in 2020.
The data further indicates the decreases and subsequent recovery were experienced unevenly across Europe, with countries such as France and Germany less affected than Spain and Italy. The hardest-hit country was Iceland, which experienced a decrease in bookings of 74.9% from 2019 to 2020, but it was followed closely by Slovenia, Malta, Hungary, Cyprus, Italy, Greece and Czechia.
Remarkably, France, Switzerland and Liechtenstein experienced almost no decrease, while Sweden has nearly completely recovered from its 28% dive in 2020. But the data also suggests there are wide discrepancies among the 334 statistical regions as tourism recovers unevenly.
“Coastal regions along the Mediterranean Sea, capital city regions, as well as alpine winter destinations were the furthest away from their 2019 levels,” the study found. “Mediterranean destinations were impacted particularly hard in 2020, as many travelers from countries such as Germany or France chose to spend their vacations within their home countries. Winter tourism suffered due to severe restrictions during winter of 2020 and 2021.”
The 10 most popular cities for bookings in all years included Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Porto, Vienna, Nice, Athens, Berlin, Valencia and Malaga. France easily led the number of bookings in all years except 2019, when Spain finished first. Italy, Germany and Portugal round out the top five.
The study also determined that amid the overall downturn, domestic tourism actually increased from 33.2% in 2019 to 58.3% in 2020, then another 55.9% in 2021.
“In 2019, domestic tourism (referring to nights spent by tourists within their country of residence) was responsible for around one third of the total nights spent," the study reported. “In 2020, as international travel became subject to increasingly severe restrictions, the share of domestic tourists increased to almost 60%."
It continued, "In 2021, while total nights spent recovered significantly, the influx of travelers from outside of Europe stayed low (17 million guest nights, compared to 73 million in 2019). Consequently, the share of domestic tourists remained at a very high level (55.9 %) and the relative importance of tourists from other world regions stayed minimal compared to the pre-pandemic situation.”
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