Catalonia was Europe's fifth most popular destination for online bookings last summer

Catalonia was Europe's fifth most popular destination last summer for bookings made through online platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and TripAdvisor. 

Some 9.43 million overnight stays were reserved between July and September 2023, up 8% on the same period the previous year, according to data published by Eurostat on Wednesday. 

The most popular EU regions for short-term rental accommodation booked via online platforms in the third quarter of 2023 were Adriatic Croatia (23.7 million nights), Andalusia in Spain (14.0 million), and France's Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (12.2 million). 

Catalonia was just pipped to fourth place by its neighbor to the south, Valencia, which had 9.7 million overnight bookings. 

France had six regions in the top 20, ahead of Spain and Italy, which had five each. The other Spanish regions in the list were the Canary Islands (5.6 million) and the Balearic Islands (4.8 million). 

Two Greek regions were on the list, while Portugal and Croatia had one region each. 

Record overnight stays in Spain 

Eurostat also published national data for the whole of 2023, with Spain registering a record 132.6 million overnight stays booked through online platforms, 12.4% more than last year and the highest total since the European Union began collecting data. 

Across the EU, guests spent 678.6 million nights in short-term rental accommodation booked online, 13.8% more than in 2022 and much higher than in 2019, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic.