Europe’s city tourism booms with double-digit growth in 2023, according to CityDNA report

The City Travel Report by CityDNA, a destination marketing and knowledge network, shows that European city tourism grew an average of 13.7% in 2023. With results from 117 cities, the 20^th edition of the report showed that the highest increases were in Rome (45.2%), London (32.1%) and Vienna (30.6%). Istanbul had the highest growth compared to 2019, jumping up a total of 24.3%. This development is due to growth in total bed nights experienced in 114 out of 117 analysed cities. The top three cities in terms of total bed nights in 2023 remained the same as 2022: London, Paris, and Istanbul. The main source markets for Europe’s cities have also shown impressive growth. The spread, however, was diverse. There was single digit growth in France, but double-digit growth in the UK, USA, Italy, Spain and Germany. China and Japan shot past the entire pack with growth rates in triple digits. Barbara Jamison-Woods, president of City Destinations Alliance, commented: “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.” The past year has shown positive average international growth rates in the report cities (19.6%), the EU 27 nations and the UK (13.8%). Cities increased much more than other regions (15.5% versus 7.2%). Further analysis revealed that the average growth rate of bed capacity gained momentum with an increase of 4.6% in 2023. Regarding the bed occupancy, the average in 2023 was 46.8%, in comparison to 43.1% in 2022. Sustainability figures City Travel Report also included estimations of CO2 emissions relating to city tourism. Only three out of 61 cities analysed recorded a decrease in kg CO2 per tourist: Stockholm, Liepaja and Luxembourg. On average, kg CO2 per tourist went up 11.8%. This figure was heavily skewed by large cities such as Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vienna, and Prague. Karl Wöber, president of Modul University Vienna summed up: “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.”