European city tourism has been steadily increasing, according to the 20th edition of City Travel Report, published by City Destinations Alliance, an alliance of European cities, with the urban areas in the region seeing average increases of 13.7 pc in 2023. 

According to the report, which features results from 117 European cities, there has been remarkable progress in the post-pandemic recovery. Among the top 20 performers, the most notable increases were recorded in Italian capital Rome at 45.2 pc, England capital London at 32.1 pc and Austria-capital Vienna at 30.6 pc. Compared to 2019, Istanbul had the highest growth, the city exceeded its 2019 values by 24.3 pc.

The top three cities in terms of total bednights in 2023 remained the same as 2022, London, Paris, and Istanbul.

Barbara Jamison-Woods

“This report is the perfect illustration of a fruitful collaboration between European destinations, it highlights significant trends, notable challenges, qualitative KPIs and key market dynamics that are shaping the landscape of city travel compared to national tourism,” says Barbara Jamison-Woods, President of City Destinations Alliance.

The statement adds that this development is due to growth in total bed nights experienced in 114 out of 117 analysed cities. 

The main source markets for European cities have shown robust performance in 2023. However, the growth rates were diverse, single-digit growth for France, double-digit growth for United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Spain, and Germany and triple-digit growth for China and Japan.

The past year has shown positive average international annual growth rates in both the report cities at 19.6 pc and the EU 27 nations and UK at 13.8 pc, says the report. 

The report says that cities increased much more than other regions, accounting for 15.5 pc versus 7.2 pc, in terms of total volumes, which highlights yet again the importance of city destinations within European tourism.

The statement adds that the average growth rate of bed capacity gained momentum with an increase of 4.6 pc in 2023. Regarding bed occupancy, the benchmark average in 2023 was 46.8 pc, in comparison to 43.1 pc in 2022.

Karl Wöber

The report says that the average nominal value for total CO2 in 2023 was at 776,678, which unsurprisingly, was heavily skewed by large cities such as Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vienna and Prague. Only three cities Stockholm, Liepaja, and Luxembourg recorded declines in carbon emissions, while 58 other cities saw an average growth of 11.8 pc.

These results offer a brief preview of the further post-pandemic recovery and stabilisation of European city tourism in 2023, despite ongoing challenges. 

“City tourism is the clear growth driver of tourism demand in Europe and the most important segment in tourism. In 2023, demand was on track to fully return compared to the period before,” says Karl Wöber, President of Modul University Vienna.