Eurostat: Europeans Travel Mostly at Home but Spend Big Abroad

European Union residents overwhelmingly kept their travel within the bloc in 2025, with nine in ten trips staying inside the EU, though they spent considerably more on journeys abroad than at home, Eurostat data showed.

EU residents took 1.20 billion personal and business trips last year, an increase of 1.4%, or 17 million trips, compared with 2024. Domestic trips totaled 848 million, or 70% of the total, while 264 million, or 22%, were to other EU member states. As a result, 92% of all trips took place within the EU.

Romania led the bloc in the share of domestic travel at 89%, followed by Spain at 87%, while Greece, France, and Portugal each recorded 85%. At the other end of the scale was Luxembourg, where only 5% of trips were domestic, followed by Belgium at 29% and Malta at 32%.

Destinations outside the EU accounted for 8% of trips, with fewer than half of those taking travelers beyond Europe.

Even though domestic trips outnumbered trips abroad by a wide margin, spending was markedly higher on the latter. EU residents spent 266.2 billion euros on domestic travel in 2025 and 379.4 billion euros on travel abroad.

Accommodation and transportation accounted for more than half of domestic travel spending, at 34%, or 90.3 billion euros, and 21%, or 56.0 billion euros, respectively. Travelers abroad spent an even greater share on both, with accommodation making up 35%, or 131.3 billion euros, and transportation 32%, or 121.5 billion euros, according to Eurostat.