City Destinations Alliance (CityDNA), the leading network of city tourism organizations in Europe, just launched the 19th edition of the “City Travel Report”. The Benchmarking Report is the main source of information for city tourism statistics today. Vienna’s Modul University is the scientific partner in producing and further developing the report, which includes the latest insights about the performance of European cities.

The Benchmarking Report illustrates the structure and main trends in city tourism of 115 European cities between 2019 and 2022. Detailed analyses feature major developments concerning bed supply, occupancy, CO2 emissions, air travel, railways, and tourism densities of European cities. In addition, the report includes detailed information about the performance of the top nine European source markets. The results of the City Travel Report show that European city tourism is on the road to recovery despite the immense impact of the pandemic in recent years. The following infographic highlights the main results for 2022.

© City Destinations Alliance (CityDNA)

Due to recovery in total bednights experienced, cities included in the City Travel Report achieved an average growth rate of 79.6% over all cities in 2022, surpassing the previous year’s rate of +36.7%. The remarkable growth rate is due to positive increases in bednights in 111 out of 115 analyzed cities in 2022. The average growth rate in the area of bed capacity for the cities was 3.2% in 2022. Regarding bed occupancy, the benchmark average in 2022 was 43.1%, in comparison to 26.4% in 2021.

In spite of the immense impact of the pandemic over the past few years, European city tourism is on the recovery path. City tourism has been for many years the most dominant and dynamic aspect of European tourism, and except 2020 which was a turbulent year, 2022 means again positive average annual growth rates in international bednights in both the CityDNA Report cities (167%) and the EU 27 nations and UK (82.8%). Top performing cities for the year 2022, in terms of total bednights, were London, recording a growth rate of 131.5% from the previous year, followed by Paris and Istanbul which recorded an increase of 144.9% and 59.5%, respectively.

Considering international source markets, the top nine central source markets in 2022 showed increased growth in demand. The United Kingdom (268.7%), Japan (251.4%), and the United States (236.6%) experienced the strongest increases. The United States and Germany were the top two performers, followed by the United Kingdom on rank three and France and Italy on rank four and rank five.

Annual tourism density in the cities included in the report was determined to be 9.20 bednights per citizen in 2022. Summer was the busiest season, as in the pre-pandemic years, with an average of 3.22 bednights per citizen, followed by fall (average density = 2.22).

In line with the sustainability strategies, the City Travel Report continues with estimations of transport-related CO₂ emissions caused by city tourism. Upon inspection of CO₂ emissions caused by tourists traveling to/from the city, average nominal value for total CO₂ in 2022 was at 600,199 tons, which unsurprisingly, was heavily skewed by large cities such as Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Vienna.

The choice of destinations is influenced by tourism and non-tourism external factors, but also by international connectivity. New this year is a dedicated chapter in train connectivity in cities. German and Swiss cities recorded the highest numbers of international trains, counted by train numbers connecting at least one other country. In terms of average number of international trains per day, Vienna is on rank five with 126.9 trains connecting at least one other country. However, considering the number of connected countries and stations, Vienna is the best-connected city in Europe (railway).

Thanks to CityDNA’s partnership with ForwardKeys, this year’s report includes valuable air travel insights and analysis on available airline seats, international arrivals for the top 30 destinations across Europe in 2022, and the total global searches for international travel during the summer period (July/August 2023).

The City Travel Report can be purchased in different versions. The light package including the report costs € 490. The professional package including the report and full data file costs € 990. The report (in English) can be purchased following this link. For all CityDNA members the report is available free of charge. City Destinations Alliance has opened up membership beyond cities, inviting also regional and national tourist boards to become affiliate members.

For further information, please directly contact the CityDNA Head Office or visit their website to order the report:

E-Mail: headoffice@citydna.eu

Web: https://citydestinationsalliance.eu