BRUSSELS, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Domestic tourism in the European Union (EU) is recovering faster from the COVID-19 crisis than foreign tourism, the EU's statistical office Eurostat said on Friday.

The number of nights spent by EU residents in tourist accommodations in their own country for July was only 22 percent lower than the previous year, while it was 64 percent lower for residents from other countries, Eurostat said.

The pandemic and the resulting lockdown that took place in spring almost led to a standstill for the tourism industry, with numbers for April showing a 93-percent decrease in nights spent in tourist accommodations for domestic tourists, and a 98-percent for non-resident tourists.

In May, domestic tourism took off a bit, going from a 93-percent decrease to an 80-percent decrease compared with 2019, whereas tourism from other countries stayed unchanged from April.

As travel restrictions eased up in June, domestic tourism continued to show good progress, with only 55 percent less nights spent in tourist accommodations than the previous year. However, for non-residents, almost 90 percent less nights were spent compared with June 2019.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the EU saw 66 percent less international tourist arrivals year-on-year in the first half of 2020.

Although the EU interior borders were reopened in the summer to spur the EU-wide tourist industry with precautionary measures taken, the exterior border has largely been closed to the world, including large outbound markets such as the United States and China. Enditem

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