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Rural tourism represents one of Europe’s most significant untapped economic opportunities. Against a backdrop of decades of decline in traditional industries, such as agriculture, tourism has emerged as one of the few sectors capable of generating substantial economic activity for Europe’s dispersed rural communities.
Quietly creating stable employment and consistent income streams, tourism has shown itself to have strong potential in contributing to overturn the cycle of depopulation currently facing towns and villages across Europe. This makes the sector vital for enabling long-term economic vitality, supporting the communities that need it the most.
As tourism becomes more widely recognised as essential to rural economic development, visitor demand patterns also demonstrate its expanding potential. Overtourism pressures in major cities and traditional tourism hotspots, combined with changing traveller preferences towards authentic experiences and less crowded destinations, have renewed interest in rural destinations.
Together with Airbnb, we set out to quantify the economic contribution and development patterns of rural tourism in Europe to understand how destinations and policymakers can best support the continued growth of this sector. What we discovered, however, was how systematically overlooked this sector has been. While tourism has often been championed as a vital driver of economic vitality and resilience in Europe’s towns and villages, rural destinations remain largely invisible in official statistics.
Unlike clearly defined geographies, such as Paris or Catalunya, rural regions encompass dispersed villages and remote areas. This means tourism activity spreads across multiple small communities. A rural region might contain dozens of villages, each generating tourism revenue but none reaching the critical mass that triggers dedicated measurement.
This data gap reflects a fundamental policy blind spot. Rural tourism’s impressive economic contributions are hidden within broader regional statistics or tourism sector aggregates, making it nearly impossible for policymakers, investors or destinations themselves to fully grasp the scale of opportunity before them.
Rural tourism is not a niche market. Instead, it is absolutely essential for balanced regional development. By shining a light on rural tourism’s true economic impact and demonstrating replicable strategies for success, this report aims to fundamentally change how Europe thinks about and invests in its rural destinations.
Our Research Approach
To address this challenge, we undertook a comprehensive analysis of rural tourism across Europe based on the available data. Our research combined two distinct but complementary approaches:
Primary Data Analysis
We analysed Airbnb’s search and booking data spanning 2018 to 2024 across eight key European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. These countries represent many of Europe’s most established tourism destinations whilst offering considerable diversity in geography, culture and economic structure.
Working at the NUTS 2 regional level, we separated city, suburban and rural listings and searches to isolate rural tourism activity in the data. References and data in this report in relation to "rural" and "rural Airbnb host" are based on Eurostat's definition, which is determined by total population and population density.
Secondary Research Integration
We supplemented this quantitative foundation with extensive secondary research, drawing upon national statistics, academic studies, government reports, industry analysis and destination-specific data from across Europe. This involved synthesising insights from country-specific reports, regional studies and various datasets to build a comprehensive picture of rural tourism’s performance and potential across the continent.
Together, these approaches enabled us to construct a detailed picture of rural tourism’s economic impact, visitor patterns and its untapped potential across Europe.
Rural tourism represents one of Europe’s most significant untapped economic opportunities. Against a backdrop of decades of decline in traditional industries, such as agriculture, tourism has emerged as one of the few sectors capable of generating substantial economic activity for Europe’s dispersed rural communities.
Quietly creating stable employment and consistent income streams, tourism has shown itself to have strong potential in contributing to overturn the cycle of depopulation currently facing towns and villages across Europe. This makes the sector vital for enabling long-term economic vitality, supporting the communities that need it the most.
As tourism becomes more widely recognised as essential to rural economic development, visitor demand patterns also demonstrate its expanding potential. Overtourism pressures in major cities and traditional tourism hotspots, combined with changing traveller preferences towards authentic experiences and less crowded destinations, have renewed interest in rural destinations.
Together with Airbnb, we set out to quantify the economic contribution and development patterns of rural tourism in Europe to understand how destinations and policymakers can best support the continued growth of this sector. What we discovered, however, was how systematically overlooked this sector has been. While tourism has often been championed as a vital driver of economic vitality and resilience in Europe’s towns and villages, rural destinations remain largely invisible in official statistics.
Unlike clearly defined geographies, such as Paris or Catalunya, rural regions encompass dispersed villages and remote areas. This means tourism activity spreads across multiple small communities. A rural region might contain dozens of villages, each generating tourism revenue but none reaching the critical mass that triggers dedicated measurement.
This data gap reflects a fundamental policy blind spot. Rural tourism’s impressive economic contributions are hidden within broader regional statistics or tourism sector aggregates, making it nearly impossible for policymakers, investors or destinations themselves to fully grasp the scale of opportunity before them.
Rural tourism is not a niche market. Instead, it is absolutely essential for balanced regional development. By shining a light on rural tourism’s true economic impact and demonstrating replicable strategies for success, this report aims to fundamentally change how Europe thinks about and invests in its rural destinations.
Our Research Approach
To address this challenge, we undertook a comprehensive analysis of rural tourism across Europe based on the available data. Our research combined two distinct but complementary approaches:
Primary Data Analysis
We analysed Airbnb’s search and booking data spanning 2018 to 2024 across eight key European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. These countries represent many of Europe’s most established tourism destinations whilst offering considerable diversity in geography, culture and economic structure.
Working at the NUTS 2 regional level, we separated city, suburban and rural listings and searches to isolate rural tourism activity in the data. References and data in this report in relation to "rural" and "rural Airbnb host" are based on Eurostat's definition, which is determined by total population and population density.
Secondary Research Integration
We supplemented this quantitative foundation with extensive secondary research, drawing upon national statistics, academic studies, government reports, industry analysis and destination-specific data from across Europe. This involved synthesising insights from country-specific reports, regional studies and various datasets to build a comprehensive picture of rural tourism’s performance and potential across the continent.
Together, these approaches enabled us to construct a detailed picture of rural tourism’s economic impact, visitor patterns and its untapped potential across Europe.
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