Europe Is the World's Tourism Hotspot

As the Northern Hemisphere’s summer holiday season is in full swing, millions of tourists are heading towards Southern Europe to spend their summer vacation on the pristine beaches and coastlines the region has to offer. With Covid-19 no longer a concern, countries like Spain, Italy and France are expecting a very busy, if not a record-breaking summer, as memories of empty beaches and travel restrictions are quickly fading.

In fact, countries like Portugal, Greece, Spain and France – the latter still the number 1 destination for international tourists worldwide in 2024 – already surpassed pre-pandemic visitor numbers in 2023, thereby leading the way in the tourism sector’s impressive recovery from this unprecedented crisis. In 2024, an estimated 1.47 billion people traveled internationally, which is virtually the same as in 2019 and up 260 percent from 2020, the worst year in history for international tourism.

As our chart shows, Europe is the world international tourist hotspot, with the region accounting for more than 50 percent of international tourist arrivals last year. Thanks to strong intra-European travel demand and many people's reservations to travel to the U.S. in the current political climate, the region is expecting another record-breaking summer, fueling overtourism concerns in some countries and regions. In cities like Lisbon and Barcelona, the proliferation of short-term rental apartments has driven up housing costs, pushing locals out of popular neighborhoods and threatening the very character that made these areas popular in the first place. Spain's Balearic and Canary Islands have also seen more and more protests against mass tourism in recent years, as local residents are vastly outnumbered by foreign visitors each year.