The Steady Rise of Americans Traveling to Europe

Worth remembering that Americans are still a small minority of the number of tourists in Europe, the vast majority of whom are other Europeans. 24 million Americans visited the whole of Europe in a year in which there were a total of 793 million international tourist visits.

Helen i had always heard about 10%. So I looked and you arr correct, depending on how you count it, 3 to 7%. Its rare I see Americsns here, mostly Spanish. I suspect the percentage of Americans is greater in the tourist trap countries and less in the newly exploited countries.

We really dont count for much.

@helen - certainly folks from the US are a smaller group than the locals traveling within Europe. But that's probably also not the point of the article. Your point, though, plays into the broader over-tourism picture as the US, Canada, Asia, and elsewhere are all seemingly ramping up travel to Europe, and then the Europeans themselves as well, and it all points to "a lot of folks heading to a lot of the same places" and that's both great and very challenging.

We'll see how it plays out - our local Euro friends here will give us that insiders perspective. Not sure how busy Bristol has become, but the UK remains a big destination for a lot of Americans. England & Wales was my first trip across the Atlantic 30 years ago (ignited our wanderlust further).

From the story, there's also this:

Governments across the continent are starting to impose limits on tourism: cracking down on Airbnbs, slapping taxes on tourists and limiting cruise-ship numbers and new hotel construction. But it’s a Catch-22 as attracting Americans remains a priority for many businesses, because they tend to spend more and stay longer than other tourists. Plus, Americans tip.

Americans visiting Spain last year spent nearly $350 a day—well above the roughly $200 a day spent by Germans and about $150 by French travelers. In Greece, Americans spent nine nights on average in 2025, compared with seven nights for tourists from the U.K.

“They just come on vacation to spend,” said Panos Panis, manager at a company that does boat trips on the Greek island of Crete. “They don’t come to buy an ice cream and sit on the beach for seven hours, for example, like most Europeans do. They’re very busy. They want to do things.”

I agree about the rise in Americans in Europe. I first visited in 1993 and visited again in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1999. On most of those trips, I didn't even bother to make reservations except for the first night. As I'd go from town to town, I'd reserve my room.

As for comments from Texas, I wouldn't take them seriously: all hat and no cattle.

The article focuses on US travelers in Europe TODAY vs. US travelers to Europe in previous decades. It makes no claims at all that Americans are more numerous in Europe than travelers from other countries. The only "US v. other countries" comparisons I see mentioned here are the relative $ amounts spent by Americans v. other countries during their visits.

This May I paid $785 coach for my direct my SFO - FRA round-trip flight. Back in 1973, the best price I could nail down for my first-ever round-trip ticket to Frankfurt was $385 coach - with a stopover at JFK. Adjusted for inflation, that $385 is $2,906 in today's money. Besides the fact that the average American is wealthier than in previous decades, inflation-adjusted fares are MUCH lower than they once were, which surely factored into our increased travel to Europe.

Lithuania.

Pulled tourism numbers from our official tourism database for 2025.

Top 10 countries for incoming tourism: USA is number 7. They are surpassed by, interestingly, Estonia in number 6 and surpass Ukraine in number 5. I am unsure if Ukraine numbers are tourism, though. Total number of Americans that visited Lithuania last year was 59, 279. That is, however, one of the largest declines compared to 2024, the number dropped by 32,632 American tourists. Actually, 2024 was our hit record for American tourists with a bit of 91,000 of them.

In 2025 the average night spent in Lithuania by American tourists was 2,6 nights. Over 66 per cent of American tourists stayed in the capital city Vilnius, other popular destinations were Kaunas, Klaipeda, Palanga and Druskininkai.

Unfortunately, they cannot tell the euro spend per trip per nationality. They say the average is 393 EUR (three hundred ninety-three euros) per person. Naturally, this number does not include airfare.

I've noticed a definite increase in the number of American tourists in Mallorca (you can always tell they're American 😉)

With the massive growth in American tourism it is expected that numbers could jump from 2.3% to nearly 3% of all tourist nights in Europe in the next few years.

It seems, across most countries in Europe, that US visitors are consistently in the top 10, if not top 5, of all visitors to a country. In almost all, they are the top visitors from outside of Europe. In a few, like the UK, they are in the #1 spot. Despite a big "pond" in the way, modern travel (and growing affluence for many), makes it easier for Americans to visit Europe - good for Americans, good for Europeans (maybe not so good for the planet).

Having just returned from a summer gathering with my extended family, it is interesting, though, to hear the talk turning much more beyond trips to Europe. SE Asia and Australia/NZ keep topping the talk, but I think for many, it's in addition to and not instead of visitis to Europe.

We'll see how modern travel evolves over the next few decades as the battle between cost and comfort play out. I found the flights to/from Australia/NZ to be the most exhausting ever, and look forward to tackling those with a better game plan next time. Improvements in comfort on those super long haul flights may make it less difficult, but we'll see how that gets priced out by the airlines. Nowadays, the flights over to Europe seem more "doable" so I'm not sure if I'm just callused towards them or the newer airplanes really are helping (probably a mix).

A smattering of links from Wikipedia on tourism - and remember, Wiki would love your feedback correcting their mistakes!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Spain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Portugal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Hungary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_the_United_Kingdom

Americans remains a priority for many businesses, because they tend to
spend more and stay longer than other tourists.

It seems that they are just comparing tourists from America with those from Europe. Leaving out the big spenders from their comparison…or did I miss something?

Here in Switzerland visitors from the Gulf countries spend an average of CHF 400/day, China 350.00, USA 260.00/day.

Statistics can be found on Switzerland Tourism. These are from 2023.

https://www.stnet.ch/app/uploads/2025/01/241204_DailyExpenditures_TMS23.pdf

"Western Europe's still a civilized place... despite those Americans all over the place"
- Jazz Butcher, 1986

My parents were mainly traveling in the US and taking us for vacations here.

Interesting that the growing schism and alienation between Americans and their compatriots dovetails with reduced domestic travel and growing international travel. Is a preference for European travel helping tear America apart? Obviously yes.

It seems that they are just comparing tourists from America with those from Europe. Leaving out the big spenders from their comparison…or did I miss something?

@swissnomad - to the great country of Switzerland, folks from the US are the SECOND largest group of visitors (after Germany) in "overnight stays". While the "Gulf Countries" (isn't it odd not to delineate them?) and several Asian countries do, in Switzerland, seem to spend more individually per day, total numbers and a higher than average daily rate does confirm the likelihood Americans would be a good focus for many businesses. In aggregate $$$, the US vs GCC is over double. US vs China is over 4x. Even US vs Germany is 25% greater. IOW, tourism dollars are a useful metric, and the per day is important, but the aggregate is too. And in both, the US traveler looks like a consumer countries would want to woo.

@Tom yes you’re right. Tourist businesses love Americans because they do spend a lot of money. It makes sense because it’s a big trip to come here and you need a certain amount of disposable income to afford it, plus you’re looking for a different experience.

As a comparison, my Dad went on a package holiday to Mallorca in June. It cost him £700 for a week half board, including the coach from the airport. He bought no more than a couple of beers each day and twice took a trip by local bus. I doubt he spent more than €150 all week.

Interesting that the growing schism and alienation between Americans and their compatriots dovetails with reduced domestic travel and growing international travel. Is a preference for European travel helping tear America apart? Obviously yes.

@toby - where are you seeing a "reduced" level of domestic travel? From the high price of gas we're currently seeing, I'd expect an impact of travel in general, but not a significant reduction as much as a "change in plans to mitigate the higher prices" which might mean shorter distances to a vacation, a lower cost mode of transport, or a tweak to length of trip or bargain seeking in accommodations.

But a real reduction in domestic travel? Like Europe with busy, crowded sites, I think we're surely seeing that too in National Parks or seashores, or amusement parks. Even with the Canadians opting to go elsewhere (probably the biggest ongoing hit to the US tourist economy). Personally, we're still doing a bunch of US travel, and I see folks filling the places we visit. That's anecdotal and not scientific, but it does inform my opinion.

I think increased foreign travel by Americans has something to do with people in their 20s not getting married and traveling more, as well as people becoming wealthy at earlier ages, retiring, and traveling more.

Social media has a big impact as well.

The average Chinese tourist spends around 1000€ in Frankfurt, buying everything from designer items to stocking up on toiletries and make-up. Twice as much as what they spend in Munich. We have the designer stores staffed with people that speak the language. Americans come for the Christmas markets, bus tours and cruises. The demographics from our tours are still 50% American, because our tours were in English, but the Canadians increased. Aussies were going up until Dubai became unsafe to land and they needed to re-arrange everything. Israel went way down. India, Singapore, and China increased quite a bit. European visitors from Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, France, etc. went up. UK went down due to the EU rules changing. Colleagues in Berlin and Munich have let me know it is the worst year they have ever had. (other than the fun Covid years, when were not allowed to work, or there were no tourists at all)

There are lots of different reasons why American tourist numbers go up and down. The dollar rate, fear from wars, increased flight prices, ease of arrival in each country, the rivers running dry (cruises have been cancelled everywhere).

Many Americans coming to Europe will generally be looking for something different from their holiday than will Europeans in Europe and it’s much the same in reverse. The distance travelled means that people will be looking for experiences they won’t get at home and that’s generally history and different cultures. Most Northern Europeans travelling around the Mediterranean are looking for sun and beach holidays (obviously some are admiring the Alhambra and the Colosseum as well). US travellers wanting sun and sand will generally gravitate to Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean rather than the Med. Europeans heading to North America will mostly be going to a handful of cities or the great outdoors (apart from Florida of course).

One factor I’ve noticed is that different nationalities tend to want to go to specific locations in European countries. It seems that pretty much every American needs to go to Bath, the Cotswolds, York, Edinburgh and Skye as well as London, but large parts of the UK are ignored. (I need here to make the point that many regular posters on here are willing to and do discover many other areas). For some inexplicable reason visitors from the Far East all want to go to Bicester to visit a discount fashion mall and many Japanese are obsessed with seeing anything to do with Beatrix Potter in The Lakes.

But this is still a bit marginal - I’ve seen plenty of mention of Cornwall in the last few years but I’m typing this whilst looking out on a perfect Cornish beach scene at the height of the season and I’ve hardly seen or heard an American* in the last 10 days.

Some of these locations are big enough to cope with a significant influx of people and others not so much so. The likes of London, Paris and Rome can cope but not so much the likes of Skye. There are similar pressures at the Cinque Terrace and the Amalfi coast in Italy. I would encourage anyone coming to Europe to please come but encourage you to travel the road less travelled - you’re welcome from the locals will be that much warmer and you will feel that you’ve seen the real country. The Cotswolds, whilst nice enough, really are not the best expression of the British countryside. There’s a reason the Cotswolds are designated as a National Landscape and not a National Park like many other areas.

• There was one American I saw this morning. My daughter-in-law and I went on a tourist fishing trip and one of the 10 of us had an American accent. For some reason she declined to actually fish but still made a point of giving the skipper a £20 tip. The only other tip he got was a packet of jelly babies from a 7/8 year old boy. I hadn’t even thought of a tip on top of the £48pp the trip cost.

Johnew52,
I enjoyed reading your commentary. I think you have made some salient points. I wish I had another 20 years (maybe I will!) to travel and visit all those places that have space in my head and that you have mentioned. Thanks for an interesting take!