People who live in EU countries made 1.2 billion trips of at least one night during 2012.
Nearly half of the trips (48%) were for pleasure, 35% to visit family and friends, 13% were for business and 4% for other reasons.
Three-quarters of all trips were made within the person’s country of residence. This was particularly true for 92% of Spaniards and Greeks, 90% of Portuguese and 89% of the French.
The vast majority (80%) of the Portuguese used a car for the 14 million trips undertaken in 2012, while 8% flew, 7% boarded a coach, and 3.5% went by train. A valiant 1.2% used other means, such as bicycles.
Portuguese residents relied on their autos more than the EU average of 65% and were consequently below the EU average for air travel (15%) and rail trips (12%).
When travelling outside their country, the Portuguese preferred to visit Spain, France and the UK in that order. The average trip lasted 4.3 nights.
The majority of European residents stayed within Europe (85%), with the rest dispersed to Asia (4.5%), Africa (4%) and North America (3.8%).
If leaving their own countries, the majority opted to go to a neighbouring country or one close by. Two exceptions to this generality were the Brits who flocked to Spain and the Romanians who went to Italy.
The three most favoured destinations for most Europeans proved to be Spain, France and Italy.
As a destination, Portugal was in the top three only for people from neighbouring Spain who opted for France, Portugal and Italy.
