In 2017, EU residents made 1.3 billion trips with overnight stays that amounted to almost 6.4 billion nights, Eurostat reported on Thursday, an increase of 4 per cent over 2016.

Three quarters (73%) of all trips were domestic, while one quarter (27%) were abroad, of which 21% to other EU countries and 6% to destinations outside the EU.

Road transport was the most common way to travel (predominantly cars) (64%), followed by airplanes (17%), trains (11%), buses (6%) and water vessels (2%).

The average trip length was 5.1 nights (4.9 days for the Maltese).

Almost half of all trips (49%) were for holidays and leisure, 35 per cent for visits to relatives and friends, 12 per cent for business and 4 per cent for other reasons.

Over half of all 6.4 billion overnight stays during tourism trips of EU residents in 2017 were spent in rented accommodation (55%). Hotels or similar accommodation providing services such as daily cleaning and bed-making came on top with 32 per cent, while 6 per cent were spent at campsites and the remaining 17 per cent in other types of rented accommodation (e.g. rented holiday dwelling, apartment, youth hostel, mountain hut).

The highest shares of staycations were observed in Romania (94%), Spain (91%) and Portugal (89%)

The largest proportions of trips abroad were registered for residents of Luxembourg (98%), Belgium (80%) and Malta (68%).