From two-hour queues at the Eiffel Tower in Paris to Athens capping visitors to the overcrowded Acropolis, the glut of tourists returning to Europe this summer has been difficult to miss.
Despite a spike in prices, flight bookings to northern Europe from June to August were up 25 per cent against a year earlier, according to data aggregator ForwardKeys, and up 13 per cent to southern Europe.
Hotel occupancy across the continent in July was just 4 per cent below pre-pandemic levels for the same month in 2019, according to industry data provider STR, defying a surge in average daily room rates in hotspots such as Paris, where they were 79 per cent higher in July this year than in 2019.
The region’s tourism industry has enjoyed its best summer season since before the pandemic as an increase in American visitors helped offset the impact of extreme heat and stubborn inflation.
France’s tourism minister Olivia Grégoire predicted last week that the world’s most visited country would benefit from a record €64bn-€67bn windfall from international tourism this year following a “very good” summer season.
Spain welcomed 47.6mn overseas visitors in the seven months to the end of July, according to national statistics bureau INE, 21 per cent ahead of the same period last year and just 0.8 per cent below 2019 levels.