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October 16, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Year-End Signing Looms For EU-India Free Trade AgreementCanberra Awaits Signature Of EU-Australia Free Trade AgreementMcGrath Readies Digital Fairness Act For Late 2026Platform Work Directive Deadline Nears As Capitals LagMarket Integration Package Gives ESMA Direct PowersFreedom Of Navigation Sanctions Test EU Unity On Hormuz ShippingTobacco Tax Directive Stays Stuck As One Veto Can Sink The DealLeaders Weigh Targeted EU Energy Price Measures As Gas Jumps 140 percentEU Space Funding After 2027 Puts Galileo In QuestionUkraine Accession Agriculture Terms Fence Off Grain AccessVAT Reverse Charge Mechanism Set For Four More YearsGulf Speakers Prepare The EU-GCC Summit At Parliament In BrusselsPlenary Vote Looms On The Critical Raw Materials Act RewriteMercosur Agreement Survives Poland’s Bid To Freeze Provisional UseGlobal Gateway Africa Hits €120 Billion As 2027 Target Draws NearEU Ukraine Loan Covers 2026 While Frozen Assets Wait For DecemberRussian Diplomats Movement Curbs Move Toward Host Country LimitsKosovo Growth Plan Money Hinges On A Surge Of ReformsIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Targets Late October Amid Language DisputeAI in Science Summit Tests RAISE In Dublin This WeekYear-End Signing Looms For EU-India Free Trade AgreementCanberra Awaits Signature Of EU-Australia Free Trade AgreementMcGrath Readies Digital Fairness Act For Late 2026Platform Work Directive Deadline Nears As Capitals LagMarket Integration Package Gives ESMA Direct PowersFreedom Of Navigation Sanctions Test EU Unity On Hormuz ShippingTobacco Tax Directive Stays Stuck As One Veto Can Sink The DealLeaders Weigh Targeted EU Energy Price Measures As Gas Jumps 140 percentEU Space Funding After 2027 Puts Galileo In QuestionUkraine Accession Agriculture Terms Fence Off Grain AccessVAT Reverse Charge Mechanism Set For Four More YearsGulf Speakers Prepare The EU-GCC Summit At Parliament In BrusselsPlenary Vote Looms On The Critical Raw Materials Act RewriteMercosur Agreement Survives Poland’s Bid To Freeze Provisional UseGlobal Gateway Africa Hits €120 Billion As 2027 Target Draws NearEU Ukraine Loan Covers 2026 While Frozen Assets Wait For DecemberRussian Diplomats Movement Curbs Move Toward Host Country LimitsKosovo Growth Plan Money Hinges On A Surge Of ReformsIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Targets Late October Amid Language DisputeAI in Science Summit Tests RAISE In Dublin This Week

Domestic Travel Dominates With 70 percent Of EU Trips As Romania Leads

Þorsteinn Sigurðarson
Legislative Tracker, Statistics (Eurostat)

Bucharest: Domestic travel accounted for 70 percent of all trips made by EU residents in 2025, according to Eurostat data published on 9 October 2026. Europeans took 1.2 billion personal and business trips last year, up 1.4 percent from 2024, and most of them never left their home country.

The detail shows how local the habit has become. About 848 million trips stayed inside the traveller’s own country, while 264 million, or 22 percent, went to another EU member state. Add the two together and 92 percent of all trips stayed within the European Union. Only 8 percent went to a destination outside the bloc, and fewer than half of those trips ended in another European country.

Romania has the strongest preference for staying put. Some 89 percent of Romanian trips were domestic, ahead of Spain at 87 percent and Greece, France and Portugal at 85 percent each. Domestic travel is a larger share of the market in countries with long coastlines, big mountain ranges or sizeable rural interiors, and Eurostat’s figures fit that pattern.

The opposite end of the table belongs to small or landlocked states. Luxembourg recorded just 5 percent domestic trips, Belgium 29 percent and Malta 32 percent. Residents of these countries have little choice but to cross a border for a change of scene, and their trips feed tourism economies in neighbouring states. For policymakers in Brussels, that cross-border flow is one of the clearest everyday expressions of the single market and Schengen.

Money tells a second story. Europeans spent €379.4 billion on trips abroad in 2025 and €266.2 billion on domestic travel. Foreign trips are fewer in number than trips at home, yet they cost far more in total. The gap is visible in each spending line. Accommodation on domestic trips cost €90.3 billion and transport €56 billion, while accommodation abroad cost €131.3 billion and transport €121.5 billion.

Domestic travel avoids that premium almost entirely. Transport is where the contrast bites hardest. Getting to a foreign destination costs more than twice as much in total as getting around at home, which helps explain why households that watch their budgets lean towards nearby options. The data do not show whether higher prices or personal preference drive the choice, and Eurostat does not claim to separate the two.

The numbers matter for several EU dossiers at once. Tourism operators in southern coastal regions depend on visitors from other member states, rail and air policy shape the cost of reaching them, and the Commission tracks travel patterns when it assesses the competitiveness of the sector. If domestic travel keeps its share in 2026, regional destinations may see steadier demand than operators that rely on long-haul arrivals, although the next Eurostat release will be needed to confirm that.

The takeaway from the 2025 figures is simple. Europeans still travel in large numbers, but domestic travel remains the default, and the extra cost of going abroad weighs on the wallet of the average household.

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