Practical guide · European tourism

Make a Bar Race with European tourism data

Animate the fall and recovery of foreign overnight stays from 2012 to 2025. Build your own look from the supplied dataset, or start with the finished chart. No AI generation is needed.

Start with the datasetUse the complete project
Foreign overnight stays in six European destinations, 2012–2025, in millions
Existing Bar Race · Eurostat data · millions of foreign nights. Watch the MP4

1. Choose one starting point

Open the tourism dataset and choose Use this dataset. It creates a separate chart with the supplied data and a starter style. The complete project keeps the finished Bar chart, Nature theme, flags and portrait layout; choose Use this project there instead if you want that composition.

Sign in and confirm your email if asked, then return to the same item and choose its Use button. Signing in alone does not create a chart. Your existing work stays intact. Free accounts allow 5 saved projects; at the limit, you can keep editing an existing chart. Free exports include the ChartGlow watermark.

2. Check the columns and units

Open Data to inspect 84 rows: 14 years, 2012–2025, for Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. In Columns, keep these mappings:

  • Country → entity / series name.
  • Year → time; keep playback in ascending order.
  • Nights → value / metric.
  • flag → series image; keep the supplied country flags.

Choose Bar in Chart. On a phone, open Chart in the bottom bar to reach the chart settings. Keep Cumulative Sum off: each value is that year’s nights, already divided into millions. Do not add years together or divide the values again.

Foreign nights are overnight stays by non-residents, based on residence rather than nationality. They are not arrivals or unique people: a longer stay contributes more nights. The six selected destinations are not an EU-wide ranking. Need a file instead? Use Download CSV on the dataset page and follow the CSV import guide.

3. Keep all six countries readable

Use a short title and a subtitle naming the measure, such as Foreign overnight stays · millions. Keep a visible Eurostat credit. In Chart, turn on Dynamic Bar Height and set Max Items to 6. Keep Labels → Show Summary off, as in the complete project, to avoid an unexplained total.

For a fresh layout, choose Portrait (9:16), then apply Platform Safe Zones → Universal. The complete project already has its accepted positions, including 20% top and 35% bottom margins. Keep those when following the finished example. If you change the theme, check positions again.

Play Preview at desktop and phone size. Read the title, subtitle, horizontal-axis values, flags, names, year and source together at the beginning, middle and end. Around a rank change, watch before, during and after the crossing: names should become readable again. Fix sustained overlap rather than judging one transition frame. Wait for Saved, reload the same chart and check your changes.

Movement between years is visual interpolation, not extra observations. Annual values do not reveal the timing within each year or establish what caused a change. See how to read racing charts.

4. Export and open your MP4

Open Export in the editor header. Choose Format → MP4, then an available Resolution and Smoothness: 720p or 1080p, 30 or 60 FPS. Portrait 1080p is 1080 × 1920 pixels; encoding depends on your browser and device.

Choose Start Export and keep the tab open. Open the downloaded file and check the beginning, crossings and end at phone size. A completion message alone does not confirm a readable video. Export downloads a file; it does not publish a social post. Use the social-video export guide for more detail, or watch the existing tourism MP4 without creating another chart.

Sources and limits to keep with your chart

The saved Eurostat tour_occ_ninat selection was retrieved 17 October 2026. It covers foreign nights in hotels, holiday and other short-stay accommodation, and campsites (I55.1–I55.3). Non-rented stays are excluded; national coverage and thresholds differ.

Greece 2012 and France 2020–2021 are estimates; Portugal has a break in its series in 2013. Keep these qualifications and the six-destination scope when comparing countries or describing changes.

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