Albania loses the "crown" of the highest growth in tourist overnight stays in Europe

Since the pandemic, Albania has led Europe in the high growth of tourist overnight stays, as it has become a booming tourist destination.

But, the latest data published by Eurostat for the first quarter of this year show that Albania has lost this "crown", however, it still remains among the countries with the fastest growth.

According to Eurostat, for the first quarter, overnight stays in Albania, both by domestic and international tourists, increased by 11.2%, slowing significantly compared to the 30% expansion recorded in 2025, with a high difference with other countries.

However, Albania continues to be among the countries with the highest growth, being second only to Ireland, which took the crown this year with 35.3%. In the region, Montenegro has a negative trend (-2.4%), as well as Kosovo (-3.9%), while the most positive performance has been seen in Serbia (6.5%).

According to Eurostat, overnight stays of domestic tourists in Albania increased at a faster rate than those of foreign tourists, 14.1 and 9.6% respectively.

Europe, growth 3.4%

In the first quarter of 2026, 471.1 million overnight stays were recorded in tourist accommodation structures in the EU, up 3.4% compared to the same period in 2025. January recorded 143.5 million overnight stays, up 3.2% compared to January 2025; February 154.4 million, up 3.4%; and March 173.2 million, up 3.7%.

At the country level, Ireland recorded the highest increase in overnight stays in tourist accommodation structures in the first quarter, with 35.3%, followed by Malta with 11.1% and Denmark with 9.3%.

Among the 9 EU countries that recorded a decline in overnight stays, Lithuania had the largest contraction, with -12.9%, followed by Romania with -6.7% and Luxembourg with -3.8%.

Foreign visitors accounted for around 46.6% of all overnight stays in the first three months of 2026, with large differences between EU countries.

The highest share of overnight stays by foreign visitors during this period was recorded by Malta with 93.3%, Cyprus with 85.6% and Luxembourg with 85.1%.

In contrast, foreign visitors accounted for only about a fifth of overnight stays in Germany at 19.9%, Poland at 20.2% and Romania at 22.4%.

Compared to the first quarter of 2025, both overnight stays of foreign visitors increased by 5.5% and those of domestic visitors by 1.7%.

The largest increases in overnight stays by foreign visitors were recorded in Ireland with 42.3%, Lithuania with 24.1% and Slovakia with 15.4%. On the other hand, the largest decreases in foreign visitors were recorded in Latvia with -7.5%, Bulgaria with -4.3% and Belgium with -4.0%./ Monitor