If you've ever checked into a hotel in Tyrol and heard more German spoken at breakfast than in Munich, the numbers back up your instinct. New figures published by Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on 18 August 2026, drawn from Eurostat data for 2024, show that Austria is the European country where travellers from Germany dominate the guest books more than anywhere else.
In 2024, 35.9% of all overnight stays in Austrian accommodation came from German guests. That is not just the highest share in the EU, it is higher than the share of stays booked by Austrians themselves, who accounted for 28.3%. Croatia sits in second place, with 22.5% of all overnight stays coming from Germany, dwarfing the 9.3% share held by Croatian domestic travellers. The Netherlands rounds out the top three at 19.2%.
Zoom out and the pattern holds. Across the EU excluding Germany, 11.6% of all guest nights in 2024 were booked by German travellers, roughly one in nine. In about half of all EU member states, Germans made up the single largest group of foreign visitors, including in heavyweight destinations such as Italy, France and Czechia.
That reach reflects both Germany's population size and its deep-rooted holiday habits: short drives to the Alps, ferry-friendly Adriatic coastlines and long-standing camping culture.
Not every country sees the same influx. Romania recorded the EU's lowest share, with just 1.6% of overnight stays coming from Germany, followed by Slovakia (2.5%) and Finland (3.1%). Sweden (4.3%) and France (4.7%) also sit well below the EU average, a reminder that France's tourism volume is driven overwhelmingly by domestic travel. Spain, despite its reputation as a German favourite, came in slightly below the EU-wide figure at 10.9%.
Eurostat only collects origin-country data for selected non-EU states, but the available figures are striking. In Türkiye, 14.9% of overnight stays came from German guests in 2024, followed by Switzerland (9.9%) and Norway (6.3%). In all three, Germans were the largest foreign visitor group.
Percentages tell only half the story. Measured in absolute numbers, Italy hosted the most German overnight stays in the EU, 65.3 million, ahead of Spain (54.9 million), Austria (47.1 million), the Netherlands (27.9 million) and France (21.3 million). Austria's dominance is proportional; Italy's is sheer scale.
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