Recent Eurostat statistics reveal that a significant number of Europeans cannot afford to go away on a holiday or are choosing not to take vacations.
The European Union’s data office has estimated that in 2023, 29% of over-15-year-olds could not afford to go away for a one-week break. In addition, data for the previous year, 2022, shows that 38% of them had not been away, not even for two-nights, though that year’s figures had not been analysed for a link to affordability.
Who takes the fewest trips away from home?
While 62% of people across Europe had taken at least one non-work-related trip, citizens of countries in the south and southeast of the bloc had taken the fewest personal or leisure trips away from home.
In Romania 60% were found not to have been on holiday at all. In Bulgaria, 44% of people had not been away, and in Hungary it was 43%. In Spain too, 33% are going without holidays, while 32% of Italians had not had a break.
Economic strength is a factor
Speaking to Euronews Business, Professor Lynn Minnaert, Dean of the School of Hospitality at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, said that a country’s economy was likely to affect how many of its citizens could choose to go away on a holiday, noting that “countries at the bottom of the list have higher GDPs than those at the top of the list.”
Accordingly, citizens of Norway, known for its high standard of living, were found to be very likely to have gone away on a holiday, with just 7.9% of people unable to travel due to hardship. Similarly, in 2022, 84% of people in the Netherlands took at least one holiday, 83% of Luxembourgois went away and 81% of those from Finland were able to take a break.
Average spends
Luxembourg’s citizens were also more likely to splash the cash while travelling, spending €175 per night. Austrians spent €154 and Germans lay out €109 per night. All of these are well over the EU average of €87. Unsurprisingly, these three countries also topped the charts for spending per trip.
France (€84), Spain and Italy (both €72) came in below average.
As well as being affected by “broader economic disparities”, the figures are related to “cultural and geographic factors”, Canterbury University’s Professor C. Michael Hall, a specialist in Management, Marketing, and Tourism told EuroNews Business.
At home or away?
Overall in 2022, EU residents spent an estimated €474 billion on tourism trips, with the majority (53%) being spent on trips abroad. 6% of that was on trips to America, followed by Asia (4%) and Africa (3%).
Among the 26 EU countries where figures were available, 17 spent more on foreign travel than domestic trips. In Luxembourg, a whopping 98% of tourism spending goes across borders. For Belgium it’s 90% and for the Netherlands its 81%.
While that may seem like a northern European phenomenon then, Maltese citizens and Cypriots also spend more overseas than abroad, with 89% and 84% of their respective tourism spending splashed in other countries.
Romanian, Greek and French holidaymakers meanwhile spent 70% of their tourism budget at home.
