EMODnet Human Activities, Tourism

The dataset on the European tourism ecosystem was created in 2026 by Cogea for the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). It is based on: (i) tour_occ_nin3 Eurostat data on nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments by NUTS 3 region; (ii) selected Eurostat data and indicators provided by the EU Tourism Dashboard platform at NUTS 3 and LAU level; (iii) NUTS 3 and LAU geographical datasets provided by the Geographic Information System of the Commission (GISCO). The indicators of the EU Tourism Dashboard cover the green, digital and socio-economic EU policy pillars. They allow profiling EU countries and monitoring their progress towards more sustainable tourism in environmental, digital and socio-economic terms. The platform also provides a set of basic descriptors on the characteristics of tourist destinations in terms of demand, supply and tourism offer. Both geographic and tabular datasets are available for viewing and download on EMODnet web portal (Human Activities, https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/human-activities). In the web map, the dataset has been filtered to show only the coastal NUTS 3 regions, according to the Eurostat definition (1=coastal, with a sea border/coastline, 2=coastal, having>= 50% of population living within 50km of the coastline, and the Hamburg region) and the LAUs located within the coastal NUTS 3 regions as per Cogea's calculation. The overall geographical coverage is: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Where available, the temporal coverage is 2019-2025. Where available, the following attributes are provided for each NUTS 3 territorial unit: Share of excellent bathing waters sites (share of sampled bathing water sites that are classified as "excellent" at a tourist destination), Tourism intensity (calculated by dividing the number of nights spent at tourist accommodations by the resident population), tourism diversity (Shannon diversity index of the distribution of tourism accommodation establishments across five geographical zones within a destination: cities, coastal areas, rural areas, natural or mountainous areas, and snowy mountains), Nights spent (total number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments), tourism capacity (number of beds available at tourism accommodation establishments), Tourism density (total number of nights spent over a year per square kilometre), Dominant tourism typology (based on the proportions of tourism capacity - i.e., no. of rooms - across different geographical zones: 1 - urban or city tourism, 2 - rural, 3 - nature, 4 - coastal, 5 - snowy mountain, and 6 - mixed), Presence of Blue flag awarded sites (number of Blue Flags awarded to beaches, marinas, inland water bodies and sustainable boat tourism operators), Share of protected/designated land (share of protected/designated land belonging to the Natura 2000 or the Emerald Network in relation to the total area), Share of accommodations in areas with high-nature value (share of the total accommodation capacity - no. of rooms - which is located within 200 metres of areas with “high nature-based recreational opportunities), Cultural assets density (obtained as the ratio between total cultural assets and the total area). At LAU level, only the total number of nights spent in 2024 is available. For further information please visit the Eurostat and the EU Tourism Dashboard. websites.