In 2021, 11.3 million people in the EU were employed in economic activities related to tourism (but not necessarily relying only on tourism).

In 2022, at the EU level, 34 percent of all tourism nights spent occurred in just two months, July and August. In nearly three of four EU regions at level two of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2), August was the month with the highest concentration in the number of nights spent (170 out of the 242 EU NUTS two regions). It was followed by July in 62 EU regions, covering most of Northern Europe and parts of Belgium, Czechia, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary and Slovakia. 

In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic heavily hit the tourism sector, the gross value added directly generated by tourism amounted to an estimated EUR572 billion, or five percent of the total gross value added in the EU economy. 

In 2020, tourism was among the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the travel restrictions as well as other precautionary measures taken in response. In 2020, the number of nights spent at European Union (EU) tourist accommodation establishments totalled 1,4 billion, down by 52 percent compared with 2019.