(Finance) – A December 2022i residing in the European Union they made approximately 92 million tourist trips, or 8.6% of all trips taken during that year. Of these, 73 million were domestic travelequal to 9.0% of the total domestic trips made in 2022. A further 19 million trips were made abroad, equal to 7.1% of the total trips foreign travel. This was communicated by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.
It is highlighted that “the enduring tradition of encouraging domestic travel during the winter holidays and the Christmas period causes a visible peak in the rather inactive winter months“. In December 2022 the number of domestic trips was almost 4 times higher than the number of foreign trips (in the other months of the year the number of domestic trips was on average 3 times higher than the number of foreign trips).
The increase in domestic travel during the year-end period “can be attributed to the people visiting friends and relatives“, is underlined. This was the purpose reported for more than half of domestic trips in December (while in the other months of the year this purpose represented approximately 1 in 3 tourist trips).
Looking at national data, residents in Romania stand out with the majority of 2022 trips concentrated in December (17.1%). This is followed by residents of Bulgaria (12.5%) and Malta (11.8%). In contrast, trips in December accounted for 5.2% of total trips taken by residents Greece6% of trips taken by residents of Lithuania and 6.4% of trips taken by residents of Sweden.