Bulgaria Goes Hand in Hand With Greece and More in Europe as Online Booked Tourist Overnight Stays Rise Over 16% in Q2 2026

Bulgaria’s online booked tourist nights grew over 16% in Q2 2026, exceeding much of Europe. Bulgaria is now one of Southeast Europe’s strongest performing tourism markets for online booked short-term accommodation, with tourist overnight stays reserved through major digital platforms rising by 16.5% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. The increase was recorded between April and June and was more than three times the European Union average growth rate of 5.3%. Strong results were also posted by Greece and Romania, highlighting a wider regional trend in which digitally booked accommodation demand grew much faster than the overall EU market.

Bulgaria’s Online Tourism Market Records Strong Q2 Growth

A total of 1,047,274 overnight stays was recorded in Bulgaria during the second quarter of 2025 through the online platforms covered by the data. One year later, the number was reported to have increased by 16.5%. This represents a sharp rise in platform-booked demand and demonstrates how strongly digital channels are being used by travellers when arranging short-term accommodation in the country.

The growth is particularly significant when compared with the European Union as a whole. Across the EU, online-booked overnight stays increased by 5.3% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. Bulgaria’s rate was therefore more than three times the wider EU pace.

This regional contrast gives Bulgaria a clear tourism growth story, particularly as online booking behaviour becomes more important across Europe’s increasingly competitive short-term accommodation market.

Greece Leads Regional Growth While Romania Also Advances

Bulgaria’s performance was part of a broader pattern across Southeast Europe. Greece recorded an 18.3% year-on-year increase in online-booked tourist overnight stays during the same period, placing it ahead of Bulgaria. Romania also recorded strong double-digit growth of 14.6%.

Together, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania significantly outperformed the EU average of 5.3%. The three markets therefore stood out as a regional cluster where demand for short-term accommodation booked through online platforms expanded quickly in Q2 2026.

Greece posted the strongest percentage increase among the three, Bulgaria followed with 16.5%, and Romania remained close behind with 14.6%.

Key Q2 2026 Online-Booked Tourism Figures

Europe Reaches 258.8 Million Online-Booked Nights

Across the European Union, 258.8 million tourist nights were spent in short-term accommodation booked through Airbnb, Booking.com or Expedia Group between April and June 2026. The total was 13.1 million nights higher than in the second quarter of 2025.

The scale of expansion becomes clearer when the comparison is extended over two years. The Q2 2026 total was 50.0 million nights above the level recorded in the corresponding period of 2024. This shows that online platforms have continued to occupy an important position in Europe’s short-term accommodation market even as the annual rate of expansion has moderated.

In the second quarter of 2024, growth had stood at 23.9%. By Q2 2026, the EU-wide annual rate was 5.3%. The slower percentage increase points to a more mature phase of expansion at European level, although the overall volume of nights remains very large. Bulgaria, by contrast, continued to grow at a considerably faster rate than the continental average.

Online Platforms Gain Greater Weight in Travel Planning

The figures underline the growing role being played by digital accommodation platforms in European tourism. Travellers can search, compare and reserve short-term stays through large online marketplaces before reaching a destination, allowing a wide range of accommodation units to be considered during trip planning.

For Bulgaria, stronger online demand can broaden the reach of its accommodation market and make more short-term properties visible to travellers searching internationally.

The figures do not measure every part of Bulgaria’s accommodation sector. They specifically relate to short-term accommodation offered through the major platforms included in the dataset. Even so, the growth rate provides a useful indication of how quickly this part of the tourism economy is developing.

Bulgaria Strengthens Its Position in Southeast Europe

Bulgaria’s 16.5% increase shows that the country moved closely alongside Greece and Romania in attracting stronger demand for digitally booked short-term stays. Although Greece recorded the highest percentage growth of the three markets, Bulgaria remained ahead of Romania and substantially above the European Union average.

This pattern gives Southeast Europe a prominent position within the Q2 2026 results. Double-digit growth across all three countries suggests that travellers were increasingly turning to online accommodation channels when planning stays in the region.

At the same time, Europe’s largest volumes of platform-booked nights continued to be concentrated in traditionally strong tourism markets. The EU total of 258.8 million nights demonstrates the enormous scale already reached by online short-term accommodation across the continent.

What the Growth Means for Bulgaria’s Tourism Sector

The rise in online-booked stays can be viewed as an important signal for Bulgaria’s tourism economy. Higher use of digital booking channels can improve international reach, simplify accommodation discovery and support a broader range of short-term lodging providers.

A 16.5% annual increase also suggests that demand remained resilient during Q2 2026 despite slower growth across the EU overall. While the European market expanded by 5.3%, Bulgaria’s much faster pace allowed it to stand out alongside Greece and Romania.

The figures also highlight the importance of digital distribution for destinations competing for connected travellers. Visibility on international booking platforms can influence which properties and destinations are considered during the planning process.

Bulgaria’s Online Tourism Momentum Stands Above the EU Average

Bulgaria’s second-quarter result places it among the stronger growth stories in Europe’s online-booked short-term accommodation market. With overnight stays rising by 16.5% year on year, the country substantially outpaced the EU’s 5.3% increase and moved in step with the double-digit expansion recorded in Greece and Romania.

The wider European market remained substantial, with 258.8 million nights booked through the major covered platforms during Q2 2026. That total was 13.1 million higher than a year earlier and 50.0 million above Q2 2024.

In Q2 2026, the number of Bulgarian tourist nights booked online increased by more than 16% compared to the previous quarter. This growth was higher than the European average and was driven by strong demand for short-stay accommodations booked through leading digital platforms. Bulgaria, together with Greece and Romania, is among the European countries with the strongest demand for tourists.

The latest data from Booking.com indicates that Bulgaria’s competitiveness in the online tourist accommodation market is on the rise. As more and more tourists choose online booking as their preferred method of finding temporary accommodation, the number of tourists staying in accommodations booked digitally continues to grow.