Leisure
Nature calling: Interest in camping and caravanning grows
As the weather improves and days get longer, the camping and caravanning season kicks off. In 2025, nights spent at camping grounds, recreational vehicle (RV) parks and trailer parks in the EU reached 413 million.
While camping and caravanning accounted for just 13.4% of all tourist accommodation nights in 2025, their popularity has steadily climbed over the past decade. Compared with 2015, nights spent at these outdoor areas increased by 28.5%, while nights spent at hotels, holidays or other short-stay accommodation went up by 23.4%.
Data shows that in 2025, 67.0% (277 million nights) of all nights spent at these accommodations were concentrated in the summer months, between June and August. The numbers started increasing in March, peaked in August with 118 million nights spent, and then decreased to 40 million in September and 15 million in October, ending the year with almost 5 million nights in December.
Source dataset: tour_occ_nim
Camping and caravanning were the most popular in France, where 154 million nights were spent at campsites and caravan parks, representing 37.2% of nights spent at these accommodations across the EU.
Nights spent at campsites and caravan parks were also high in Spain (49.8 million), Italy (49.1 million) and Germany (45.0 million). The number of nights spent in the remaining top 10 EU countries varied between 26.8 million in the Netherlands and 7.1 million in Portugal.
Source dataset: tour_occ_nim
For more information
- Statistics Explained article on nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments
- Thematic section on tourism
- Database on tourism
- Webinar on tourism statistics
- Podcast on experimental statistics
- Tourism nights visualisation tool
- Tourism trips of Europeans – online publication
Share this article:
EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter. Please see EU Reporter’s full Terms and Conditions of publication for more information EU Reporter embraces artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance journalistic quality, efficiency, and accessibility, while maintaining strict human editorial oversight, ethical standards, and transparency in all AI-assisted content. Please see EU Reporter’s full A.I. Policy for more information.
-
Iran3 days agoEurope must engage on the Iran issue, but not be misled by false alternatives
-
EU waste legislation3 days agoCarbon pricing waste won’t send Europe backwards
-
European Commission2 days agoCommission advances cloud sovereignty through strategic procurement
-
Cancer2 days agoNew approaches to tackling cervical cancer
