Booking platforms data (Eurostat)

Ongoing | Last update: 10.10.2022

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Existing situation and objectives

In 2020, the European Commission signed a data sharing agreement with four platforms - Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor. This allows the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), to publish data on short-term accommodation offered through these four platforms.

This is a publication of the results for Switzerland, which benefits from this agreement and is intended to provide users with an overview of the rentals yet does not claim to present rentals in entirety and cannot ensure that the same concepts have been applied as for tourist accommodation statistics.

Limitations

• The results only refer to accommodation offered via these four platforms. Data for accommodation that is not offered via these platforms is not presented in these results. Therefore, no conclusions can be made about this tourism accommodation category in entirety.

• Additional problems regarding coverage of the statistical population under consideration may also arise due to differences in the categories of accommodation used in tourism statistics and those on these platforms. The results cannot be aggregated with other tourism statistics (e.g., hotel and supplementary accommodation statistics) due to possible overlapping.

• Solely the aggregated data for all four platforms is presented, whereas data on the individual platforms is not presented.

 

Publication by Eurostat

Eurostat receives the data from the platforms on a quarterly basis and publishes them on:
Collaborative economy platforms - Experimental statistics

 

Additional analyses

National statistics offices may publish certain additional details to address specific national needs. In Switzerland’s case, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) is authorised to publish the data at tourist region level. The FSO receives the results of the four platforms from Eurostat, which have already been aggregated, for this purpose. The results presented below are based entirely on the data provided by Eurostat, and the FSO cannot verify or guarantee the quality of the data.

Booking platforms: Overnight stays in Switzerland, quarterly results 2019-2021

Quarter	Overnight stays
	2019	% Swiss visitors	2020	% Swiss visitors	2021	% Swiss visitors
1st quarter	1 429 724	36.3	1 522 852	38.5	1 385 644	64.6
2nd quarter	1 438 503	19.5	564 993	72.1	1 310 858	69.9
3rd quarter	2 261 575	19.7	2 054 996	57.5	2 282 936	48.4
4th quarter	1 253 594	28.2	1 097 240	66.9	1 354 364	49.0
TOTAL	6 383 396	25.0	5 240 081	55.5	6 333 802	56.5

Only rentals via Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and Tripadvisor. Only 'Holiday and other short-stay accommodation' (NACE 55.2). Source: Eurostat

Booking platforms: Overnight stays by visitors’ country of residence, quarterly results 2021

Vistors’ country of residence	Overnight stays
	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	TOTAL
TOTAL	1 385 644	1 310 858	2 282 936	1 354 364	6 333 802
Switzerland	895 513	915 757	1 104 144	663 770	3 579 184
Total foreigners	490 131	395 101	1 178 792	690 594	2 754 618
Europe (excl. Switzerland)	438 611	335 070	923 537	491 327	2 188 545
Germany	115 254	144 745	325 497	146 037	731 533
France	98 947	66 812	154 799	94 805	415 363
Netherlands	9 210	7 823	113 298	32 116	162 447
United Kingdom	23 791	18 378	50 736	46 308	139 213
Italy	17 914	17 644	45 181	32 822	113 561
Poland	75 490	6 276	18 091	8 535	108 392
America	35 269	40 911	132 698	111 486	320 364
Asia	10 642	12 415	56 438	61 310	140 805
Oceania	3 073	2 532	3 768	5 214	14 587
Africa	2 077	1 727	4 976	4 250	13 030
Unknown	459	2 446	57 375	17 007	77 287

Only rentals via Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and Tripadvisor. Only 'Holiday and other short-stay accommodation' (NACE 55.2). Source: Eurostat

Booking platforms: Overnight stays by tourist region, quarterly results 2021

Tourist region	Overnight stays
	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	TOTAL	% Swiss visitors
TOTAL	1 385 644	1 310 858	2 282 936	1 354 364	6 333 802	56.5
Graubünden	296 104	110 207	252 790	145 928	805 029	67.5
Eastern Switzerland	47 585	74 357	125 988	60 086	308 016	55.3
Zurich Region	80 932	104 043	173 483	137 528	495 986	33.5
Lucerne / Lake Lucerne	53 316	75 039	130 888	75 026	334 269	48.7
Basel Region	14 923	20 126	33 072	28 160	96 281	40.6
Bern Region	157 672	179 798	381 627	199 720	918 817	47.4
Jura & Three-Lakes	19 840	41 495	50 363	27 486	139 184	67.5
Vaud	103 933	123 811	197 391	129 357	554 492	49.2
Geneva	33 304	41 558	68 107	61 584	204 553	28.0
Valais	477 158	216 471	474 933	317 204	1 485 766	59.5
Ticino	74 193	279 312	331 153	131 491	816 149	81.1
Fribourg Region	13 034	24 184	34 287	19 831	91 336	63.8
Aargau and Solothurn Region	13 650	20 457	28 854	20 963	83 924	40.4

Only rentals via Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and Tripadvisor. Only 'Holiday and other short-stay accommodation' (NACE 55.2). Source: Eurostat

A dataset with monthly data by visitors’ country of residence and tourist region can be found here:

Methodology

The results are based on data provided by four international platforms: Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor. Data for accommodation that is not offered via these platforms is therefore not presented in these results.

The statistical population under consideration is as defined under NACE 55.2 'Holiday and other short-stay accommodation'. However, the (non-harmonised) categories of accommodation used by the platforms do not correspond to the existing concepts and definitions for tourism statistics. This can lead to additional problems concerning the coverage of the statistical population under consideration.

The data is aggregated by the platforms according to local administrative districts (in Switzerland, the communes, in German, Gemeinde) and transmitted to Eurostat. The platforms allocate the data to the communes based on the geo-coordinates of the accommodation.

The data sets of the four platforms are then aggregated by Eurostat. There is an assumption that a rental is only registered on one platform at any one time. The results about the rentals of the four platforms are added together.

For detailed information, see this note on methodology from Eurostat.

Documents

Further information and ordering data

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If you have any questions, please call or email us. Please bear in mind, that as the FSO receives the data from Eurostat in a form that is already aggregated, we may not be able to answer all questions about the content of the statistics. Eurostat can also be contacted directly (see link below).

Links

Experimental statistics from Eurostat on collaborative economy platforms