MONACO RESEARCH OBSERVATORY
MONACO DATA OBSERVATORY · MONACO IN FIGURES

Volume, trends, seasonality and composition of tourism activity in Monaco. Main statistical reference year: 2025. Sources reviewed on 3 October 2026.

This page examines the structure of tourism activity in Monaco using hotel records, port statistics and the official 2025 visitor survey. The reconstructed continuous hotel series covers 2016–2025 and uses 2019 as the pre-pandemic benchmark. The latest complete year analysed is 2025. Each indicator retains its own unit: person-arrivals, person-nights, room occupancy, cruise calls, passenger records or estimated visits. None of these measures, on its own, represents all unique visitors. The survey also makes it possible to study same-day visits and non-hotel accommodation, using a specific visitor definition and estimation procedure. Revisions between publications, small arithmetic residuals and discrepancies in port statistics are reported explicitly. Incompatible populations are not added together, and peaks are not attributed to events without causal evidence.

01 · Tourism at a glance

02 · Trends in hotel demand

The series distinguishes the 2019 benchmark, the 2020 contraction and subsequent growth. These are totals for the hotel system observed each year, not a fixed sample of establishments or an estimate of tourism overall. The 2021 and 2024 data use the later versions identified in the statistical yearbooks and bulletins.

¹ Ratio calculated by MRO using published annual totals. The 2010–2011 observations are retained in the dataset, but the 2012–2015 interval is not interpolated: the recovered tables for those years report room-nights, a different unit.

Recovery relative to 2019

Index 2019 = 100. Teal: hotel arrivals. Burgundy: person-nights. The bars share a scale from 0 to 100.

Interpretation: within hotel records, the recovery in overnight stays is closer to the pre-pandemic level than the recovery in arrivals. This is consistent with a higher ratio of nights to arrivals. It does not demonstrate a comparable increase in all visitors to Monaco.

03 · Length of stay

In 2025, the hotel ratio was 2.57 nights per arrival, compared with 2.46 in 2019. This mean describes an aggregate relationship; it does not indicate the most common stay length or the behaviour of a typical tourist. The 2026 yearbook labels the unit «jour», whereas the bulletin uses «nuitées»: here we retain the unit corresponding to the ratio, nights per arrival.

04 · Hotel seasonality

Peaks depend on the indicator. In 2025, July recorded the most arrivals, while August had the most person-nights and the highest occupancy. November was the low point for all three variables. The table retains the published monthly figures.

Seasonal pattern · room occupancy

Percentage of occupied room-nights out of those available each month. Fixed scale from 0 to 100%.

Interpretation: the arrival and overnight-stay calendars are not identical. A month with longer stays can have more person-nights without leading in arrivals. The monthly table cannot isolate the shares attributable to summer, a conference or a major event.

05 · Where demand originates

Nationality in hotel records and country of residence in the survey are different variables. The French-language categories are retained verbatim to avoid undocumented recoding. These categories cannot be used to infer income, spending, motivation or whether someone is a luxury tourist.

Leading hotel nationalities · 2025

¹ Shares and ratios calculated by MRO using totals of 353,875 and 907,826. The three largest arrival categories—Français, Italiens and Américains—account for 45.8%. This source does not publish a complete distribution of all nationalities here.

Complete published rankings · fifteen categories

Changes in comparable categories · 2019–2025

Only identical labels are compared. The 2019 category «Britanniques» and the 2025 category «Anglais» are not joined without an official correspondence table. A change in arrivals within a nationality category is not equivalent to a change in visits by residents of that country.

Residence of estimated visits · 2025

Data: France accounts for 49.6% of same-day visits and 26.4% of overnight visits in the survey. Interpretation: the composition by country of residence varies by type of visit. These proportions are not interchangeable with the 21.8% of hotel arrivals in the «Français» category. Survey percentages are adjusted estimates, not exhaustive counts.

06 · Cruise tourism

Statistical publications document port activity and its seasonal pattern. The passenger labels vary between «passagers», «visiteurs» and «croisiéristes». We use «cruise passenger records» to avoid an unproven equivalence with unique visitors. No verifiable breakdown of transit, embarkation and disembarkation was found in these tables.

The interruption does not mean that all of 2020 had zero activity: there was one call in January. The suspension extended from mid-March 2020 to April 2022, and no calls took place in 2021. The SEPM page also describes new admission conditions following the pandemic. This change in operating conditions calls for caution in interpreting recovery; it does not, by itself, establish a statistical break.

Port calendar · 2025

Monthly distribution of passenger records

Bar scale: 0–20,000 records. Figures refer to port records, not unique people ashore.

Data: October has the highest number of registered passengers (17,051), but May records the most calls (34). No records are reported for January–March or December. Interpretation: the port calendar differs from the hotel calendar, for which overnight stays peak in August. The two volumes are not added together: their units and potential overlaps preclude a meaningful visitor total.

07 · Same-day visits and non-hotel accommodation

The 2025 survey provides an official estimate with a published methodology. A total of 6,878 questionnaires were collected between January 2025 and January 2026, representing 17,473 people after expanding responses by group membership. These are not 17,473 independent interviews. Responses were adjusted using hotel records and mobile network connections, according to residence, arrival month and hotel/non-hotel accommodation status.

Estimation method: for each month, hotel arrivals are divided by the proportion of tourists staying in hotels; the result is then divided by the proportion of tourists among all visits. Mobile data are used for adjustment, but the total is not simply the sum of mobile phones. MRO reproduces the official estimates and does not recalculate them using published rounded percentages. The report provides neither confidence intervals for the totals used here nor enough detail to reproduce the entire weighting procedure from scratch.

Estimated visits by month

Unit throughout the table: thousands of estimated visits. July has the highest total (898 thousand); March the lowest (275 thousand). Components and totals are rounded separately in the publication and may therefore differ when summed. No adjustments are made to force agreement.

Accommodation for overnight visits

Interpretation: same-day visits dominate the estimated number of visits within the population defined by the survey. Hotel accommodation accounts for the majority, but not all, overnight visits. This finding replaces a generic statement that data were unavailable with a measurable, delimited description; it still does not provide an annual count of unique visitors.

08 · Business tourism and events

Professional motives for a visit and the activity of an event venue are different objects of analysis. The survey provides information about visit motivations; the Grimaldi Forum reports events and attendance. Neither can be treated without qualification as a total count of conference tourists.

Grimaldi Forum figures describe its own programme and attendance. We do not know how many participants were residents, how many stayed overnight or how entries were deduplicated. No estimate of economic impact is published here, and changes in hotel demand are not attributed to the venue. Nor do we force comparisons between major-event calendars and monthly peaks.

09 · What the figures show

10 · Methodological notes

Definitions and units

A visitor is defined according to the survey’s explicit thresholds. A tourist is a visitor who stays overnight in Monaco; a same-day visitor sleeps elsewhere. A hotel arrival is a person-stay; a person-night is one individual’s overnight stay. A room-night measures one occupied room regardless of the number of occupants.

Visits and unique individuals

The same person may make several hotel stays or visits during a year. A survey visit groups consecutive days of presence and can include daily returns from outside Monaco. Visitor-days, entries, border crossings, visits and unique individuals are different units. Any reference to ‘tourist flows’ must specify which is being measured.

Geographic scope and coverage

The analysis is limited to statistics published for Monaco. It does not aggregate figures for the wider French Riviera or the Italian port of Cala del Forte. Hotel statistics retain the DTC/IMSEE coverage; the survey has its own exclusions. Grimaldi Forum figures cover only that venue.

Occupancy

It is calculated using available room-nights for the period. It cannot be obtained by taking an unweighted mean of the twelve monthly percentages. The yearbook describes the order of the ratio ambiguously; the figures and the reconciliation 570,619/884,375 confirm occupied divided by available room-nights.

Average length of stay

Person-nights are divided by person-arrivals. Older publications contain verbal descriptions reversing that order; this error is not repeated. The recorded mean is neither a median nor a typical stay length. Survey means are retained as published estimates.

Historical comparability

The main person-based series has been reconstructed for 2016–2025. Changes in capacity are part of the observed hotel system, so it is not a fixed panel. No formal methodological break was identified in this series; that absence does not guarantee completely identical coverage. The 2010–2011 points are retained without filling 2012–2015 with room-nights.

Later versions

The 2026 publications report 350,104 arrivals and 900,043 nights for 2024, compared with 348,259 and 895,354 in the 2025 publications. The later version agreeing across S01 and S02 is selected. For 2021, 565,525 nights from S07 are used rather than 566,536 in S08; the difference occurs in December. The causes are not explained, and no methodological break is invented.

Arithmetic reconciliation

Monthly hotel sums differ from some annual totals by one or two units. In 2025, the sum of arrivals exceeds the total by one and the sum of nights falls short by one. Original figures are retained and official totals used as annual denominators. For cruises in 2025, the twelve months sum to exactly 137 calls and 92,023 records.

Estimation, adjustment and precision

The survey combines in-person questionnaires with QR-code self-response, expands responses by group membership and adjusts the results using hotel arrivals and mobile network data. The expanded sample is not a set of independent interviews. Results refer to 2025 although data collection continued into January 2026. No margins of error or individual-level precision are fabricated from rounded thousands.

Cruise passengers

The published total of passenger records is retained without claiming that it comprises embarkations plus disembarkations plus transit: such a breakdown is not documented in the tables used. Neither is it interpreted as the number of people who went ashore. The same person can appear in more than one call; annual deduplication has not been demonstrated.

Pandemic and reopening

2020 includes activity before the suspension. The zero cruise calls in 2021 are supported by an explicit note stating that none occurred. Dashes in that table are interpreted in light of the note, not through a general rule that converts every blank cell to zero.

Origins and classifications

Hotel nationalities and survey residence are not harmonised. Anglais, Britanniques, Néerlandais and Hollandais are retained. Original labels are not replaced by countries of residence. Geographic aggregates across editions with different classifications are not spliced together.

Events and causality

Event counts and attendance are kept separate from business tourism in the survey and from hotel nights. Peaks are not attributed to the Grand Prix, trade shows, conferences or other events solely on the basis of temporal coincidence.

Latest year and updates

2025 is the last full year analysed as of 3 October 2026. Partial 2026 data are not compared as though they were full-year figures. New publications may revise the figures; the version, link and access date must be retained.

Verification status

The technical register uses the four codes required by the protocol: verified, verified with a definitional caveat, conflicting sources and insufficient verification. The main indicators use only the first two. Conflicting values are reported solely as methodological issues, not as selected estimates.

Calculations and rounding

All MRO ratios, indices, changes and ranges are identified as original calculations. The following register reports inputs, formula, exact rational result, decimal approximation and editorially reported result. An exact fraction preserves precision without pretending to infinite decimal accuracy. Shares are rounded to one decimal place and stays to two; original source figures retain their published precision.

Calculation register

Calculated by Monaco Research Observatory using source data. Results refer to the published inputs, whose precision and coverage constrain interpretation. Decimal expressions are approximations; the fraction is the exact unrounded result.

Discrepancies and exclusion decisions

11 · Complete source register

Page references follow printed pagination unless PDF file-page numbering is explicitly stated. Comparison between publications from the same producer can establish editorial consistency but does not constitute an independent statistical measurement. Dates that could not be established are identified as such.

S01 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2026. Chapitre 4 : Économie

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2026.pdf.

Location: §4.9, printed pp. 127–130 (chapter PDF pp. 45–48). Period: 2024–2025. Publication/update: 2026; public presentation on 23-06-2026. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: 2025 hotel demand, nationalities, occupancy and cruise traffic; revised 2024 figures. Note: The 2025 hotel totals differ by one unit from the monthly sums; they are retained as published. Cruise figures: SEPM as data producer.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/6d8c690e26ba642c32f4066e9e1eda7e/file/IMSEE_Magazine_Monaco%20en%20Chiffres%202026_160x240mm_0226-82690-DH_Interactif_Chapitre%204.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=1

S02 · Bulletin de l’Économie, 4e trimestre 2025, n°88

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: bte2025.pdf.

Location: p. 4, Tourisme; cumulative data from 1 January. Period: 2024–2025. Publication/update: March 2026. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of the main 2025 totals and revised 2024 versions. Note: These are not fourth-quarter figures alone. The 2024 cruise-passenger number differs from S05/S15; the cause is unexplained.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/1fc2e8412167b1b2e460701725a3e1bf/file/BTE%204T%202025.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=7

S03 · Le tourisme en Principauté : résultats de l’enquête 2025

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: survey2025.pdf.

Location: pp. 3–12; methodology pp. 16–20; tables 1–7 and 10; figure 4. Period: 2025; fieldwork January 2025–January 2026. Publication/update: June 2026 (document date); presentation on 07-07-2026. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Estimates of visits, same-day visitors, accommodation, residence and motivations. Note: Survey adjusted using hotel records and mobile phone data; not a census or a count of unique individuals. No confidence intervals are reported for the totals used.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/db22a4b943b14881725cf956cbe32570/file/TOURISME_MONACO_2025.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=2

S04 · Enquête sur les dépenses touristiques en Principauté 2025. Présentation

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: survey_slides.pdf.

Location: Slides on estimates of visits, accommodation and length of stay. Period: 2025. Publication/update: Press conference on 07-07-2026. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of estimates and accommodation distribution. Note: Same statistical operation as S03; not independent validation.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/2026c258d20b9524a576cf4c28c5c841/file/CONF_PRESSE_IMSEE_DTC_PRESENTATION_ENQUETE_TOURISME.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=2

S05 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2025

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2025.pdf.

Location: §4.10, pp. 123–126; border-control statistics p. 138. Period: 2023–2024. Publication/update: 2025 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/6bf4ffa7f2384763b6c655ddaeb71c80/file/MAGAZINE_160x240_IMSEE_Monaco%20en%20Chiffres%202025_27-05-2025_interactif_light.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S06 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2024

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2024.pdf.

Location: §4.10, pp. 119–122; border-control statistics p. 134. Period: 2022–2023. Publication/update: 2024 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/00b79f43f6c368069f35524752d97b5d/file/MAGAZINE_160x240_IMSEE_Monaco%20en%20Chiffres%202024_29-05-2024_interactif_compressed.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=1

S07 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2023

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2023.pdf.

Location: §4.10, pp. 121–123 and 126. Period: 2021–2022; cruise retrospective 2015–2022. Publication/update: 2023 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions. Note: The document title is retained even when the downloaded filename contains a different year.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/c54af15734a9d2a809d6bc046e898c9b/file/MAGAZINE_160x240_IMSEE_Monaco%20en%20Chiffres%202024_09-06-2023_interactif-compress%C3%A9.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S08 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2022

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2022.pdf.

Location: §3.12, pp. 105–109. Period: 2020–2021. Publication/update: 2022 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/d480d966615ba3532014bba1b3e71334/file/MAGAZINE_160x240_IMSEE_Monaco%20en%20Chiffres%202022_30-05-2022_interactif_complet.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S09 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2020

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2020.pdf.

Location: §3.12, pp. 100–104; border-control statistics p. 129. Period: 2018–2019. Publication/update: 2020 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/41baf9b5b874e683cddf7f9500c6f3da/file/MeC2020_Global_%20%281%29.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S10 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2018

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2018.pdf.

Location: §3.9, pp. 95–97. Period: 2016–2017. Publication/update: 2018 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/b693bbb964a6174fd8fcea379211ae77/file/monaco%20en%20chiffres%202018.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S11 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2012

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2012.pdf.

Location: §2.6.I.C–D, p. 69. Period: 2010–2011. Publication/update: 2012 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/4e38eceede742cd184fae306c702b31f/file/Monaco%20en%20chiffres%202012.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S12 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2016

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2016.pdf.

Location: §2.8, pp. 67 and 70. Period: 2012–2015. Publication/update: 2016 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/fb892fa3be63cf3a6351fc2bf58e8612/file/monaco%20en%20chiffres%202016.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S13 · Monaco en chiffres, édition 2014

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: mec2014.pdf.

Location: §2.8, room-night tables, pp. 76–77. Period: 2011–2013. Publication/update: 2014 (exact date not established). Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Historical reconstruction and audit of units/versions.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/cbf55f4e5468a58b1684c2cc3b800489/file/monaco%20en%20chiffres%202014.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=3

S14 · Bulletin de l’Économie, 4e trimestre 2023, n°80

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: bte2023.pdf.

Location: p. 4, Tourisme; annual cumulative data. Period: 2022–2023. Publication/update: March 2024. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of hotel arrivals and port records.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/6666f429b6be6f4b8826be3a02b0ec85/file/BTE%204T%202023.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=5

S15 · Bulletin de l’Économie, 4e trimestre 2024, n°84

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: bte2024.pdf.

Location: p. 4, Tourisme; annual cumulative data. Period: 2023–2024. Publication/update: March 2025. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of the initial 2024 version. Note: Its 2024 figures must not be mixed with hotel denominators from the 2026 edition.

https://imsee.mc/content/download/1a77c6b2398621d4063e216cd47955bf/file/BTE%204T%202024.pdf?inLanguage=fre-FR&version=1

S16 · Cruises in Monaco

Institution: Société d’Exploitation des Ports de Monaco (SEPM). Document: Institutional webpage.

Location: Section The Sea wall. Period: 2019; post-pandemic context. Publication/update: No visible date. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of port activity in 2019 and reopening context. Note: 165 calls and 183,468 passengers in 2019: discrepancy with S09; unresolved.

https://www.ports-monaco.com/en/the-cruise/

S17 · Grimaldi Forum Monaco : Un bilan 2025 record et des perspectives 2026 déjà historiques

Institution: Grimaldi Forum Monaco. Document: Institutional webpage.

Location: Section 2025 : une année-anniversaire charnière et record. Period: 2025. Publication/update: January 2026; results presented on 13-01-2026. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Commercial and cultural events; attendance at AMWC and the Couleurs! exhibition. Note: One venue and its events. Attendance is not equivalent to unique tourists.

https://www.grimaldiforum.com/newsletter/view/TlVoak4wWlJia2M1V1VGamRqaHVUSGhQV1dKSlVUMDlfaXZfWlROaU1HTTBOREk1T0daak1XTXhOQT09

S18 · Tourisme

Institution: IMSEE; Tourism and Convention Directorate (DTC). Document: Institutional webpage.

Location: Chiffres clés en 2025: Secteur hôtelier and Croisières. Period: 2025. Publication/update: Current webpage; no visible update date. Accessed: 03-10-2026.

Use: Cross-check of the six main indicators. Note: Same primary producers as S01 and S02; not an independent measurement.

https://imsee.mc/thematiques/economie/tourisme

Monaco Research Observatory · Original research and calculations using institutional sources. Accessed edition: 3 October 2026.