EU tourism hits record in 2014

[BRUSSELS] The European Union attracted a record number of tourists in 2014, with visits to France leading the bloc, official data showed on Thursday.

Last year tourists spent 2.7 billion nights in tourist accommodations across the EU's 28 countries, the Eurostat data agency said, up 1.7 per cent from 2013.

France still came top of the heap, with 403 million visitor nights, but that was down 1.7 per cent from last year.

Sun-soaked Spain moved ever closer to dethroning France, up 3.1 per cent to 401 million nights. The figures include both domestic and international visitors.

Baltic nation Latvia saw the biggest increase in tourism, up by 11 per cent, while Greece and Portugal enjoyed solid recoveries after years of weakness due to the eurozone debt crisis.

Spain and Italy attracted the most number of foreign tourists, the data showed.

AFP