(27 June 2014) – In 2012, EU28 residents made 1.2 billion trips of one night or more. The average trip length was 5.2 nights. The most common means of transport for trips was private or rented cars (65%), followed by air planes (15%), trains (12%), buses (6%) and water vessels (2%).
Of the number of total trips, 76% were made within the country of residence (domestic trips), while 24% were made outside (outbound trips). For these outbound trips, the main destination for EU28 residents was clearly Europe (85.4%), then followed Asia (4.5%), Africa (4.1%), North America (3.8%), Central and South America (1.9%) and Oceania (0.4%). More specifically, the top 3 destinations for outbound trips for residents of the EU28 were Spain, France and Italy.
The highest shares of trips of EU residents within their country (domestic trips) were observed in Romania (95%), Spain and Greece (both 92%), Portugal (90%) and France (89%). On the other hand, the largest proportions of trips abroad (outbound trips) were registered by residents of Luxembourg (97%), Belgium (78%), Malta (60%) and Slovenia (55%).
The average length of stay varied from more than seven nights for residents of Greece (7.5 nights), Cyprus (7.2) and Belgium (7.1) to less than four nights for residents of Latvia (3.1), Finland (3.4), Denmark (3.6) and Hungary (3.7).
Cars were the main means of transport for trips in 2012 for all Member States except for Malta.