Asia is the second most visited destination outside Europe for EU residents
Europe — and very often a tourist’s own country of residence — remained the most attractive destination for most trips made by Europeans. It accounted for 86.0 % of the total number of trips made in 2016 (see Figure 1). The top continent visited outside Europe was America with 5.7 % of total trips, followed by Asia with 4.9 %.
Figure 2 takes a closer look at trips made outside the EU. Trips to other destinations in Europe — such as Turkey, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and all other non-EU European countries — made up the largest share (38 %). Nonetheless Asia accounted for more than one in five trips outside the EU (22 %). When measured in terms of nights spent and expenditure, Asia’s share of all non-EU tourism increases to 29 % and 28 % respectively. EU residents made 15.2 million trips…