Eurostat (the statistics office of the European Commission) published in late June the data relating to summer tourism in the territory of the member states of the EU during the summer season of 2006, with particular reference to the number of individual overnight stays in hotels or similar. In the period June-September 2006, a total of 710 overnight stays were registered in the hotels of the 27 member states, a growth of 2,3% over the previous season. The growth percentage however increases to 5.3% if compared with the figures for 2004. At the top of the classification is Italy (131 million overnight stays), followed by Spain (130 million), Germany (86 million) and France (83 million). As regards non-residents, on the other hand, Spain with 77 million overtook Italy (52), France (32) and Greece (31). Latvia and Lithuania are the two countries with the sharpest increase in the sector (respectively + 18% and +15%), while only in Cyprus, the UK, Luxembourg, Malta, France and Hungary are the tourist figures declining. One curiosity: in Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus the percentage of overnight stays by non-residents, i.e. foreign tourists, is well in excess of 90%, while in Romania and Germany it is only some 20%.
