92% of holidays and trips stay within the European Union. Photo: Shutterstock Europeans continue to travel extensively, but prefer to stay close to home. New data published by the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, reveals that 92% of all trips made by EU residents in 2025 took place within the EU itself.
The data includes private and business trips with accommodation, and presents an interesting picture of tourism habits in one of the world's largest travel markets.
In total, about 1.2 billion trips were recorded during the year, an increase of 1.4% compared to 2024, meaning an addition of about 17 million trips in one year.
However, behind the enormous scope of activity lies a particularly striking statistic: the vast majority of trips did not require crossing the border of the country in which the traveler resides.
Of all the trips made by EU residents during 2025, 848 million trips, representing approximately 70% of the total, took place within the travelers' country of residence.
Another 264 million trips, which is about 22%, were to other European Union member states.
Only 8% of trips were to destinations outside the EU, and even of those, less than half were to destinations outside continental Europe.
This means that domestic tourism and travel between EU member states continue to be a central basis for the tourism activity of European residents.
The data also reveals significant gaps between EU countries in the travel habits of their residents. Romania leads with 89% of its residents' travel within the country itself, followed by Spain with 87%.
Greece, France and Portugal show the same rate of 85% domestic travel, meaning that the vast majority of travel by their residents takes place within their own countries.
On the other hand, Luxembourg has only 5% of trips within the country, a figure that reflects, among other things, its small geographical size and proximity to neighboring countries. In Belgium, the rate of domestic travel is 29%, and in Malta, 32%.
Although the number of domestic trips is significantly higher than the number of trips abroad, the total expenditure of EU residents on travel abroad was much higher.
In 2025, their expenses on travel within their country of residence amounted to approximately €266.2 billion. In contrast, expenses on travel outside their country of residence reached approximately €379.4 billion.
That is, Europeans travel much more within their own countries, but spend higher amounts in aggregate when they travel abroad.
In total, spending on both types of travel amounted to approximately €645.6 billion.
There were also interesting differences in the distribution of expenses between domestic and international travel. In travel within the country of residence, spending on accommodation accounted for about 34% of the total, about €90.3 billion.
In trips abroad, however, the weight of both items was higher.
Spending on accommodation during international travel was approximately €131.3 billion, which is 35% of total spending, while transportation accounted for approximately 32%, or approximately €121.5 billion.
The data highlights the economic weight of the hotel and transportation industries in outbound tourism of EU residents.
The new data indicates continued growth in the number of trips within the European Union, alongside stability in the preference of many residents to travel within their own countries and to neighboring countries. For countries with large domestic tourism markets, such as Spain, France, Greece and Portugal, this is a significant demand base that is not solely dependent on inbound tourism from other countries.
At the same time, the high spending on travel abroad illustrates the economic importance of international tourism for airlines, hotels, transport companies and tourist services across Europe.