There is a part of Europe where the number of tourist overnight stays far outnumbers the resident population. This pattern is captured by the Eurostat data for 2024, analyzed by the Greek Reporter, which place at the top of the rankings one of the Mediterranean’s most cherished areas. It is the Southern Aegean in Greece, where last year there were 127.2 overnight stays per resident.
First place for the Southern Aegean
The European lead thus goes to the Greek region of the Southern Aegean, a territory that includes some of the country’s best-known islands, such as Santorini, Rhodes and Kos. Last year it recorded over 41.5 million overnight stays, while its population is about 326,000.
The ratio of tourist stays to residents reaches 127.2 nights per inhabitant, the highest value among the European zones considered in the analysis. This figure quickly conveys the pressure exerted by tourism on a territory that is relatively small and deeply oriented toward hospitality.
Right behind are the Ionian Islands, also in Greece, with 102.6 overnight stays per resident and 20.5 million nights in total. The ratio is likewise striking here, given a population of around 200,000 people. No other European region comes close to the levels recorded by these two Greek areas. The data do not necessarily indicate how many people are present at a given moment, but measure the relationship between the nights spent by visitors and the resident population. It is therefore a useful indicator for understanding tourism’s weight on the territories.
Italy in the spotlight: Bolzano
The first Italian destination in the rankings is the autonomous province of Bolzano, also known as the gateway to the Dolomites in the Italian Alps. Here 68.9 overnight stays per inhabitant were recorded, a figure that places the region among Europe’s top for the concentration of overnight stays.
The figure highlights how strong the appeal of South Tyrol is throughout the year, thanks to alpine landscapes, ski resorts, hiking trails, and nature tourism. The province sits among a lineup dominated by major coastal and island Mediterranean destinations, illustrating that even a mountainous region can achieve very high levels of tourism saturation.
The other destinations more (and less) crowded
Behind Bolzano lies Croatia’s Adriatic coast, with 67.5 overnight stays per resident. It includes famous cities such as Dubrovnik and Split, among the country’s most requested destinations. The Balearic Islands of Spain follow, with 60 overnight stays per inhabitant; Ibiza and Mallorca contribute to making this archipelago one of Europe’s major tourist hubs.
In sixth place is Greece again, with Crete reaching 55.6 overnight stays per resident. Yet the weight of tourism varies significantly within the European Union. In the majority of the regions analyzed, fewer than 15 overnight stays per inhabitant are recorded.
That is also the case for the Northern Aegean, another Greek region, which with 14.9 overnight stays per resident sits at 24th. At the opposite end of the ranking lies Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean and part of the EU, with only 0.5 overnight stays per inhabitant. Slightly above this is Mazovia, the Polish region surrounding Warsaw, recorded at 0.7.
