Booking platforms data (Eurostat)

| Last update: 10.10.2022

Bild – experimental statistics

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

Contact: info-tour@bfs.admin.ch
Telephone: +41 58 463 61 97

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