2026 Dublin Travel Cost Study
Dublin on a budget: what a trip to Dublin costs
A mid-range trip of 4 nights in Dublin costs two people about €1,330, with flights, breakfast and drinks not included.
Dublin trip cost calculator
Set the length of your stay, who travels, your style and the month. Hotel figures come from the prices we read on Google Hotels. Meals and car hire use published figures. Share your budget with the link.
Your trip
€1,330
€665 per person · €166 per person per night
| Hotel | €576 |
|---|---|
| Eating out | €528 |
| Activities | €126 |
| Car hire | €0 |
| Leap Visitor Card | €64 |
| Airport coach | €36 |
| Tourist tax | €0 |
Short answer
Yes, Dublin is pricey by Eurostat's national index. Eurostat puts restaurant and hotel prices across Ireland at 129.3 (EU average = 100, 2024). That is a national figure, not one for Dublin alone. In our calculator, a mid-range trip of 4 nights for two costs about €1,330, or €665 each. Budget travellers pay about €926; comfort costs about €1,402. The month you go moves the hotel bill a lot. In the nights we read, the same mid-range trip came to €1,186 for January stays and €1,618 for August. Flights, breakfast and drinks are extra.
How to spend less in Dublin
- Go in January. A 4-star night cost a median €108 that month, against €216 in August. It was the cheapest of the 8 months we could compare.
- Swap a Saturday for a Tuesday. At the same 3-star hotel, a Saturday cost a median 59.2% more than the Tuesday of that week, over 136 pairs.
- Choose 3-star. A 3-star room cost €96 in January, against €108 at 4-star. It was cheaper in every month we compared.
- Get a Leap Visitor Card for busy days. The 24-hour card costs €8, and one Leap fare is €2. It pays off from your fourth separate fare of the day.
- Make one meal a day a cheap one. Guides name pizzas and small plates in cheap places at €13 to €16. A mid-range meal is about €33.
- Pick a cheaper night out. A quarter of the 6 Irish music and dance shows we priced start at €41 or less, against a median of €63. A pub crawl has a median of €26. Or spend the evening free, in a park or on a walk.
Thinking of the Dublin Pass? We found no Dublin Pass price we could check, so it is not in our calculator. To judge it, add up the from-prices of the sights you want. The Guinness Storehouse starts at €37, a Book of Kells tour has a median of €119 and a Jameson tour €60. Then compare that sum with the price on the pass's own site. A combo tour of the Book of Kells, Dublin Castle and Christ Church starts at €22. We did not price theatre or festival tickets. Flights are left out of this study too.
What a trip to Dublin costs for two
Two people spend about €1,038 on 3 nights, €1,330 on 4 nights and €1,622 on 5 nights at mid-range, without flights. For 5 nights, that is about €811 each.
Here is one trip of 4 nights in three styles, at the median of all sampled months. It counts a room for two, 2 meals out per person a day, and 2 activities: the Guinness Storehouse and the Irish coffee masterclass at their from-prices. It also counts a 24-hour Leap Visitor Card every day and the airport coach both ways. Breakfast and drinks are not counted. Our study has no 5-star class, so comfort uses the same 4-star room as mid-range. Comfort adds one tasting menu a day. The per-person-per-night figure is the whole trip cost divided by travellers and nights, so it includes the activities and the airport coach.
| Style | Hotel | Eating out | Activities | Transport, airport, tax | Total | Per person per night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget 3-star hotel, cheap meals | €460 | €240 | €126 | €100 | €926 | €116 |
| Mid-range Our default 4-star hotel, mid-range meals | €576 | €528 | €126 | €100 | €1,330 | €166 |
| Comfort 4-star hotel, one fine dinner a day | €576 | €600 | €126 | €100 | €1,402 | €175 |
Shorter and longer trips (mid-range, for two)
Hotel prices in Dublin by month
A hotel night in Dublin cost a median €115 at 3-star or €144 at 4-star, per room for two. Of the 8 months we could compare, January 2027 was the cheapest for 4-star in the nights we read (€108 a night) and August 2027 the dearest (€216). A 4-star room cost €126 in November 2026, €119 in December 2026 and €216 in August 2027. So the August night was 71% dearer than November, and December was a little cheaper than November. Our December nights were mid-month: we did not read the Christmas or New Year nights.
About these numbers
On 25 October 2026 we read 1,449 prices for 231 places to stay on Google Hotels. We picked two nights per month, a Tuesday and a Saturday, from November 2026 to August 2027. Every price is for a single room shared by 2 adults. Of these places, 71 are 3-star and 89 are 4-star. The other 71 have no star rating on Google or another class. We left out 29 hostels, flats and houses (148 prices), since they do not price a room for two. So this study has no price for a hostel dorm bed. We also did not compare areas of the city, such as south of the river against further out. There is no 5-star class: too few 5-star hotels showed prices. The middle half of 4-star nights cost €111 to €189.
All figures are Google Hotels medians: one room, 2 adults, one night. Each month's 3-star figure rests on 20 to 64 prices. We read them up to months ahead, so prices close to your dates may differ.
By month and star class
Each date brings a new set of hotels on Google. So we only compare months inside one star class, like a 3-star room in January against a 3-star room in March. We rank the cheapest and dearest months over the 8 months with enough prices. May and June had too few, so they are shown but not ranked. In June 2027, a 3-star room was even higher, at €162. Both March nights we read fell in the week of St Patrick's Day.
| Month | 3-star | 4-star |
|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | €97 | €126 |
| December 2026 | €103 | €119 |
| January 2027 | €96 | €108 |
| February 2027 | €102 | €115 |
| March 2027 | €156 | €174 |
| April 2027 | €118 | €154 |
| May 2027 few prices yet, not ranked | €151 | €189 |
| June 2027 few prices yet, not ranked | €162 | €189 |
| July 2027 | €149 | €171 |
| August 2027 | €144 | €216 |
Saturday against Tuesday
How we compared weekends
We set a Saturday night beside the Tuesday night of that same week, at the same hotel. That gave us 342 pairs: 136 at 3-star, 180 at 4-star and 26 at hotels without a star class. At 3-star, the Saturday was a median 59.2% dearer, and 88% of 3-star pairs cost more. For 4-star the gap was 31.6%. Each month rests on one Tuesday and one Saturday, with both star classes together. The gap was widest in November 2026, at 89.2% (22 pairs). In July and August, 100% of 45 pairs cost more on the Saturday. March was the one exception. In St Patrick's week, Tuesdays were as dear as Saturdays.
Hotels we checked
- Temple Bar NYX Hotel Dublin Christchurch
Hotel on Exchange Street Upper, 100 metres from Dublin Castle, with a restaurant and a bar.
- Grafton Street & St Stephen's Green Drury Court Hotel
Hotel on Stephen Street Lower, 200 metres from Grafton Street and a 5-minute walk from Temple Bar.
- O'Connell Street & the north inner city Hotel 7, Dublin City Centre
Hotel at 7 Gardiner Row near Parnell Square, 700 metres from Croke Park, with a restaurant and a bar.
- Smithfield & Stoneybatter Maldron Hotel Smithfield Dublin City
Hotel in Smithfield, a 2-minute walk from the Old Jameson Distillery and the Smithfield Luas stop.
Rated 8 or more on Booking.com. Our prices above are medians for the whole city, not quotes for these hotels. We did not compare prices between these areas.
Booking.com ratings and hotel notes as shown on 25 October 2026.
How Ireland compares with other European countries
Ireland is the dearest country in this list for eating out and hotels. On Eurostat's index it stands at 129.3, against 124.6 for the Netherlands, 110 for France and 83.9 for Spain (EU average = 100, 2024).
Eurostat prices the same basket of meals out and hotel stays in every country. This is a figure for all of Ireland in 2024, not for Dublin alone.
- Portugal 75.5
- Spain 83.9
- Greece 86.4
- Italy 106.9
- France 110
- Germany 112.1
- Netherlands 124.6
- Ireland 129.3
Source: Eurostat, price level indices (prc_ppp_ind), restaurants and hotels, EU27 = 100, read 25 October 2026.
How much eating out costs in Dublin
The published prices we found put a cheap meal in Dublin at about €15 (2 sources) and a mid-range meal at about €33 (2 sources). A tasting menu comes to about €42 per person (3 sources, from €38 to €170).
These are published prices, not our measurement. We quote each one word for word, all read on 25 October 2026. It is a small set of prices. The mid-range figure is the middle of two ranges: set-price meals from a guide to all of Ireland, and one Dublin restaurant's price band. The tasting-menu figure is the middle of three menus, one of them from 2022. The calculator uses the middle value of each group.
| Meal | Used in the calculator | Published figures |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap meal a pizza or a few small plates at a cheap place | about €15 median of 2 sources |
|
| Mid-range meal a set-price meal or a main at a mid-range restaurant | about €33 median of 2 sources |
|
| Tasting menu per person, at an upscale restaurant | about €42 median of 3 sources |
|
Pints, coffee and wine
A pint costs €6.90 to €9.20 in central Dublin, a coffee €3 to €4 and a glass of wine €4.50 to €9, from published prices. Each range comes from 2 sources. The pint range is from one 2025 newspaper report. The wine range is two venues' own prices, and neither is dated.
| Drink | Middle figure | Published figures |
|---|---|---|
| Pint a pint of stout or lager in a city-centre pub | about €7.48 |
|
| Coffee a cup at a café | about €3.25 |
|
| Glass of wine house wine at a bar or hotel | about €6.75 |
|
One 2022 report gave €6.90 for a pint of Guinness. That is the low end of the city-centre range a newspaper gave in 2025, but it is not a Temple Bar price check. So check the price board before you order, wherever you are. Our guide to bars in Temple Bar Dublin covers the pubs and the tours.
What activities cost in Dublin
A Guinness Storehouse Dublin tour starts at €37 per person, and a coach trip to the Cliffs of Moher at €69. For a cheaper night out, a quarter of the 6 Irish music and dance shows start at €41 or less, against a median of €63. A pub crawl has a median of €26, and the free places below fill your days. We did not price theatre or festival tickets, and we found no Dublin Pass price we could check.
About these numbers
We measured these ourselves. Each row is the median "from" price per person of the tours and tickets on one of our pages, as GetYourGuide showed them on 25 October 2026. Rows marked "few tours" rest on very few prices, so read them as a rough guide. The Blarney Castle row mixes a day trip with a multi-day tour, so its median is not a day-trip price. That day trip starts at €85. To compare coach trips to the west coast, see our Cliffs of Moher tour Dublin page.
| Type | Median |
|---|---|
| Guinness Storehouse tickets and tours | €87 €58–€116 |
| Temple Bar: tours, pubs and what to know | €29 €25–€38 |
| Cliffs of Moher day trip from Dublin | €69 €69–€75 |
| Howth day trip and tours from Dublin | €34 €28–€54 |
| Giant's Causeway and Belfast day trip from Dublin | €83 €76–€88 |
| Glendalough and Wicklow Mountains day trip from Dublin | €45 €39–€50 |
| Jameson Distillery Bow St. tour | €60 €45–€119 |
| Game of Thrones Studio Tour from Dublin few tours | €71 €58–€79 |
| Dublin Castle tours | €71 €22–€121 |
| Hop-on hop-off bus tours in Dublin | €30 €28–€49 |
| Blarney Castle and Rock of Cashel day trip from Dublin few tours | €422 €85–€759 |
| Newgrange and Boyne Valley tour from Dublin few tours | €77 €69–€85 |
| Book of Kells and Trinity College tours | €119 €65–€125 |
| Kilkenny day trip from Dublin | €31 €21–€40 |
| Day trips from Dublin | €69 €43–€76 |
| EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum tickets few tours | €85 €22–€147 |
| Whiskey tours and tastings in Dublin | €33 €24–€54 |
| Walking tours in Dublin | €22 €18.10–€25 |
| Ghost tours in Dublin | €30 €23–€35 |
| Afternoon tea bus tour in Dublin few tours | €60 €57–€62 |
| Boat tours and river cruises in Dublin | €21 €16–€28 |
| Pub crawls and pub tours in Dublin | €26 €22–€38 |
| Glasnevin Cemetery tours few tours | €15 €13–€17 |
| Food tours in Dublin | €77 €63–€98 |
| Multi-day tours of Ireland from Dublin | €389 €199–€700 |
| St Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church tickets | €20 €12–€178 |
| Irish music and dance shows in Dublin | €63 €41–€70 |
| Bike tours in Dublin few tours | €35 €35–€190 |
| Croke Park stadium tour few tours | €32 €18–€45 |
Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile of from-prices; rows with fewer than 4 tours ("few tours") show a rough spread only. A "from" price is the lowest option a listing offers. Prices and ratings as shown on GetYourGuide on 25 October 2026.
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from €37 per person Guinness Storehouse Dublin: Guinness Storehouse Entry Ticket Check availability -
from €26 per person Temple Bar Dublin: Irish Coffee Masterclass at The Temple Bar Pub Check availability -
from €69 per person Cliffs of Moher Dublin: Cliffs of Moher, Galway & Burren day tour Check availability -
from €25 per person Howth Dublin: Howth Coastal Boat Tour Check availability -
from €80 per person Giant’s Causeway Dublin: Giants Causeway, Dark Hedges, Dunluce & Belfast Tour Check availability -
from €45 per person Glendalough From Dublin: Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough & Kilkenny Tour Check availability
Free things to do in Dublin
These places are known for free entry, so you can fill whole days for little money. We did not check their fees for this study, so look at each official site before you go. To compare: the National Gallery's main collection is free, while a Guinness Storehouse ticket starts at €37.
- Free National Museum of Ireland
Its museums on Kildare Street and at Collins Barracks are free to enter. See gold from the Bronze Age and Viking finds.
- Free National Gallery of Ireland
The main collection is on Merrion Square. Check the gallery's site for any paid shows.
- Free Trinity College grounds
The old campus in the city centre is free to walk through. The Book of Kells inside costs extra.
- Free Phoenix Park and St Stephen's Green
Walk, picnic and spot the deer in Phoenix Park. St Stephen's Green is a calm break in the centre.
- Tip-based Walking tours you pay by tip
Some guides lead city walks for free and ask for a tip at the end. You pay what you think the tour was worth.
Opening times and fees change, so check the official site before you book a visit or a tour. More on the castle: Dublin Castle.
How much a rental car costs in Dublin
Published average prices for a hire car run from €46 to €64 a day, with €56 in the middle.
These are published prices, not our measurement. Some cover Dublin Airport and some cover all of Ireland. Your price will turn on your dates, the car, the cover and fuel. The calculator takes the low figure for budget, the middle for mid-range and the high for comfort.
- €46 a day:
the average price to hire a car for a day is 46 €
skyscanner.ie - €49 a day: middle
Medium car hire in Ireland typically costs around €49 per day
kayak.ie - €62 a day: middle
On average, it costs 62 € per day to rent a car there
skyscanner.ie - €64 a day:
On average, car rentals at Dublin Airport cost around €64 per day
roadgenius.com
Advertised minimums, not typical prices: from €13 a day (roadgenius.com) · from €13 a day (skyscanner.ie).
You do not need a car in the city. Buses, the Luas tram and DART trains reach most sights, and coach tours run to the big trips. See getting around Dublin and our day trips from Dublin.
Tourist tax, public transport and the airport coach
We found no tourist tax in force in Dublin on 25 October 2026. A government plan only proposes a levy on overnight stays for councils. So the calculator counts no tax.
Key findings of the 2026 Dublin Travel Cost Study
- €144 for the middle 4-star night, per room for two adults.
In our sample of 1,449 Google Hotels prices for two adults, from Google's default list and, for 3-star, a list filtered to 3-star hotels (231 properties, including some unrated rooms; hostels and whole houses left out), all read on 25 October 2026 for stays from November 2026 to August 2027, a 4-star night in Dublin cost a median €144 per room, with the middle half between €111 and €189. A 3-star night cost a median €115. These medians pool every night we read, and months hold different numbers of prices, so they are not a year-round average.
- €108 a 4-star night in January, the cheapest month we could compare, against €216 in August.
Across the 8 months we could compare (May 2027 and June 2027 had too few prices), the median 4-star price per room per night (two adults) ranged from €108 in January 2027 to €216 in August 2027. We read two nights a month and Google shows a different set of hotels each night, so part of that gap is the mix of hotels, not only the season.
- €96 a 3-star night in January, against €156 in St Patrick's week in March.
In the nights we sampled, a 3-star room for two cost a median €96 a night in January 2027 and €156 in March 2027; June 2027, left out of the ranking for too few prices, was higher at €162. Both March nights we read fell in the week of St Patrick's Day.
- 59.2% more for a Saturday than the Tuesday before, at the same 3-star hotel.
For the same 3-star hotel, a Saturday night cost a median 59.2% more than the Tuesday before it (per room, two adults), and the Saturday was dearer in 88% of 136 such comparisons. For 4-star hotels the gap was 31.6%. We read one Tuesday and one Saturday a month; in March 2027, in the week of St Patrick's Day, Saturdays were no dearer than Tuesdays (both star classes together).
- €8 for a 24-hour Leap Visitor Card, and €13 to €16 for a cheap meal.
Two published guides put single dishes and small plates in cheap Dublin places at €13 to €16 (one of the two guides is older than this year). A Leap Visitor Card for one day of buses, Luas, DART and commuter rail in Dublin's zone 1 costs €8.
- €1,330 for a mid-range trip of 4 nights for two, without flights, breakfast or drinks.
Our calculator puts a mid-range trip of 4 nights for two at about €1,330: one shared 4-star room at the median of all 4-star prices we sampled, two meals out a day each at the mid-range figure (€33, the median of two published price ranges), the Guinness Storehouse and an Irish coffee masterclass at their from-prices, a one-day Leap Visitor Card each day (not the cheapest card for the trip) and the Dublin Express coach from the airport both ways at its from-fare. We found no tourist tax in force in Dublin when we checked (25 October 2026); a levy on overnight stays is only a government proposal. Flights, breakfast and drinks are not included.
Source: 2026 Dublin Travel Cost Study, things-to-do-in-dublin.com (CC BY 4.0)
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the data · embed the chart
Method, data and reuse
What we measured ourselves
- Hotels: 1,449 prices of 231 hotels on Google Hotels, read on 25 October 2026. One Tuesday and one Saturday night per month, November 2026 to August 2027, 2 adults, one room; paid ads, listings without a price and duplicates left out. These are the prices advertised for those dates when we read them, not what guests later paid. Months are compared within a star class because Google shows a different set of hotels for each date. May 2027, June 2027 had few prices yet; both are shown but not ranked. Star classes: Google's default hotel list for Dublin held only 16-19 priced 3-star hotels in some months once hostels were left out, too few to compare months within the 3-star class; so we added one extra Google Hotels search per night filtered to 3-star (depth 20), same dates, 2 adults, one room; only hotels Google labels 3-star are kept, and the same exclusion rule (hostels, whole houses) applies (407 of the 1,449 prices). These count for the 3-star figures only, from the filtered rows alone in every month (main-search 3-star rows stay in the all-hotel figures); the all-hotel figures, the 4-star figures and month sample sizes use the main search alone; the 3-star weekend pairs use the filtered rows first and main-search 3-star rows where the filtered list lacks the hotel: the all-hotel median rests on 1,042 prices. 2027-09 is not in the sample: Google Hotels priced only 19 3-star hotels across the two September 2027 nights, even read again at depth 100 (20 needed to compare that month within the star classes); rows kept in raw/hotels-2027-09-not-used.csv.
- Activities: the "from" prices of the 144 tours and tickets on our 29 activity pages (the table above), as shown on GetYourGuide on 25 October 2026; the calculator offers 12 tours, one per activity page. A "from" price is the lowest option a listing offers, not a typical price.
What we cite
- Meals, drinks and car hire: figures published by travel guides, food-tour companies and rental platforms, found through Google search and quoted word for word with their date. A range counts with its midpoint, each source once per group. No figures from forums, social media or price lists filled in by readers. Pages that show a date are from after 2022, except the tasting menu and pint figures, from 2022; many pages show no date at all.
- Tourist tax, fares: the Government of Ireland, Leap Card.
- Price level: Eurostat, price level index for restaurants and hotels (EU = 100), 2024.
How the calculator adds up
- Months and rooms: "All sampled months" uses the median of every price we read for that star class, from November 2026 to August 2027. Months hold different numbers of prices, so it is not a year-round average. There is no 5-star class, so comfort uses the 4-star night. Room prices are for 2 adults, so a solo traveller pays the full room price. Every night is priced at the median of the Tuesday and Saturday nights we read. The calculator does not change the price by weekday. Eating out: 2 meals a day at the style's meal price; breakfast and drinks are not counted. Default activities: the Guinness Storehouse and the Irish coffee masterclass, at their from-prices (the cheapest option), per person. Per person per night: the total trip cost divided by travellers and nights, with the activities and the airport coach included.
- Hotel: nights × rooms (one per two travellers) × the median for the style's star class in that month (or the whole year).
- Eating out: nights × travellers × meals a day at the style's meal price; in comfort, one fine dinner a day and the other meals at mid-range prices.
- Car: days × the style's daily price. Activities: the from-price per person or per group.
- Tourist tax: none counted, since we found none in force.
- Transport: nights × travellers × the 24-hour Leap Visitor Card (€8). A card every day is our assumption, not the cheapest choice. Longer Leap Visitor Cards cost less per day. Airport: two Dublin Express rides per traveller, at the online from-fare (€9 each). This line stands apart from the Leap card, so a day you fly in or out may be paid twice.
Each line is rounded to whole euros.
Plan your Dublin trip
- Best time to visit Dublin, month by month
- Christmas and New Year in Dublin
- Dublin itinerary: 1 to 4 days
- Dublin neighbourhoods for visitors
- Is Dublin safe for tourists?
- Is Dublin worth visiting, and Dublin or Edinburgh?
- Where to stay in Dublin
- Romantic Dublin: things to do as a couple
- Dublin for solo travellers and young adults
- Free and cheap things to do in Dublin
- Rainy day in Dublin: indoor things to do
- Dublin with kids
- Hidden gems and unusual things to do in Dublin
Next, pick the part of Dublin that fits your plans, with well-rated hotels in each area.
Dublin travel costs: questions
Is Dublin budget friendly?
Not cheap, but you can keep the cost down. Eurostat puts restaurant and hotel prices across Ireland at 129.3 (EU average = 100, 2024), a national figure. In our calculator, a budget trip of 4 nights for two costs about €926. That buys a 3-star room, cheap meals and a Leap Visitor Card. Going in January and sleeping on a Tuesday rather than a Saturday were the two biggest price gaps we saw in the nights we read. Work out your own trip.
What is the average cost of a meal in Dublin?
Published prices put a cheap meal at about €15 and a mid-range meal at about €33 per person. A tasting menu at an upscale restaurant is about €42. A pint adds €6.90 to €9.20. See the sources.
Is a weekend in Dublin dearer than a weekday?
Yes, in most of the nights we read. At the same 3-star hotel, a Saturday cost a median 59.2% more than the Tuesday of that week. At 4-star the gap was 31.6%. We only read Tuesdays and Saturdays. See the hotel prices.
Is Dublin cheaper at Christmas, in summer or in November?
Summer was the dearest. A 4-star night cost a median €216 in August and €126 in November. December came to €119, but our December nights were mid-month, not Christmas or New Year. The cheapest month we read was January, at €108.
Is the Leap Visitor Card worth it?
On busy days, yes. The 24-hour card costs €8 and one Leap fare is €2. The card breaks even at your fourth separate fare of the day. If you walk most of the day, pay per fare instead.
Is the Dublin Pass worth it?
It depends on the sights you want. We found no Dublin Pass price we could check, so it is not in our calculator. Add up the from-prices of your sights, like the Guinness Storehouse at €37 or a Book of Kells tour at a median €119. Then compare that with the price on the pass's own site. A combo tour of the Book of Kells, Dublin Castle and Christ Church starts at €22. See all activity prices.
How much does a day trip from Dublin cost?
A coach day trip to the Cliffs of Moher starts at €69 per person. Wicklow and Glendalough start at €45. These are GetYourGuide from-prices, read on 25 October 2026. See all activity prices.
Sources
Car hire prices (cited)
All read 25 October 2026 (the day we read them, not the day they were published; some pages show no date)
Meal and drink prices (cited)
All read 25 October 2026 (the day we read them, not the day they were published; some pages show no date)
Official sources
All read 25 October 2026
- Tourist tax per night: assets.gov.ie
- Transit day pass: about.leapcard.ie
- Transit single ride: about.leapcard.ie
- Airport transfer one way: dublinexpress.ie
- Price level index, restaurants and hotels: Eurostat