Most of the regions surrounding Luxembourg saw more guest nights than the grand duchy. Photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne / Archives

Most of the regions surrounding Luxembourg saw more guest nights than the grand duchy. Photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne / Archives

According to Eurostat data released on 9 January, European coastal regions, such as those in Spain, France and Croatia, remained the most popular holiday destinations during the second quarter of 2022. Most of the regions surrounding Luxembourg saw more guest nights than the grand duchy.

From April to June 2022, Luxembourg had 79,295 guest nights that were spent at short-stay accommodations and were booked via online platforms, according to Eurostat. This is one of the lowest when comparing Luxembourg with its neighbouring regions. Only Saarland, in Germany, saw lower figures for the same time period (65,371 guest nights). The French region of Lorraine saw the most, with 491,724 guest nights.

The  is based on figures obtained via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group or TripAdvisor, the result of a March 2020 agreement between the European Commission and the four platforms. The delayed release of data is in line with the agreement. The statistics are official, though experimental, according to the EU’s statistical office.

France and Spain had six regions each in the 20 most popular regions in the EU, Italy had five, Portugal two and Croatia one region. The top five regions for short-term rentals were Andalucia in Spain (6.5m nights booked via online platforms), Jadranska Hrvatska in Croatia (5.5m nights), Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France (5.2m nights), Cataluña (4.6m nights) and Île de France in France (4.1m nights).

Increases compared to pre-pandemic levels

From January to June of 2022, bookings exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time: 199m nights compared to 83.8m nights during the same period in 2021 and 193m nights in 2019.

During the third quarter of 2022 (July, August and September), guests spent approximately 251m nights in short-term rentals booked online in the EU, an increase of 24% compared to the same period of 2021 (202m nights). This figure is also 9% more than the number from the pre-covid summer of 2019 (230m nights).