How we research our guides

01Where do the facts come from?

Mostly from public bodies that publish official statistics. At the moment that means:

• Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, for month-by-month tourist nights in 35 European countries, and for regional nights, hotel occupancy, where guests come from, how long they stay and how accommodation prices changed, and for regional population. See Off-season in Europe and Quieter alternatives.
• The national statistics offices of Slovenia (SURS), Italy (Istat), Austria (Statistik Austria) and the Netherlands (CBS), for tourist nights and population in single towns. See Which town is quieter?
• The Japan Tourism Agency, a Japanese government agency, for guest nights, hotel occupancy and guests' nationality in all 47 prefectures. See Off-season in Japan.
• The Statistics Bureau of Japan, for 2025 census population, which we use to compare prefectures of different sizes. See Japan's least-visited prefectures.
• UN Tourism, the United Nations agency for tourism, for regional and global arrival trends, which we quote with the source named. See Is shoulder season worth it?
• Statistics Canada, the US National Travel and Tourism Office, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Stats NZ and the Singapore Tourism Board (published through the Singapore Department of Statistics), for monthly international visitor arrivals and where visitors come from. See When do international visitors arrive?
• The World Meteorological Organization, whose 1991–2020 climate averages are published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for monthly weather, rainy days and, where available, sunshine at one station for the capital of 27 European countries. We also use NOAA's published sunrise and sunset method to calculate daylight hours.
• MeteoSwiss, the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, for Liechtenstein's monthly weather at Vaduz.
• The Japan Meteorological Agency, for monthly weather, rainy days and sunshine at one station in each prefecture, named after its capital city, and for cherry blossom, autumn-leaf and typhoon averages.
• Japan's Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice, for the dates of national holidays, with English names from the ministry's reference translation of the law.
• Official gazettes, legislation databases and government departments in 32 European countries, such as Spain's Boletín Oficial del Estado, Italy's Normattiva and Finland's Finlex, for public holiday dates, which we check against the European Commission's list for EU members. School holiday dates come from the education ministries of France, the Netherlands and 14 German states, and from Luxembourg's official school-calendar regulation. For Cyprus, which has no single national list, we show the Central Bank of Cyprus bank holidays. Each country page names its source.

Every guide lists its sources at the bottom, with a link and the date we checked them.

02How do we check them?

• At the source. We read each figure where it was first published, not in a news story or on another travel site.
• Licence first. Some public data may not be reused on a commercial site like ours, which is set up to earn affiliate commission. We check the terms before we use anything, and leave data out when they do not allow it, even when it is complete. Kosovo's figures are one example.
• Our own sums are labelled. When we calculate something ourselves, such as a month's share of the year, the page says so. Where the source publishes its own totals, we check our results against them.
• A second check before publishing. Every number is traced back to its source, and any wording stronger than the source is toned down or cut.
• Caveats stay in. If the source says "mostly", "estimated" or "among destinations that reported data", so do we.

03What does "Researched, not travelled" mean?

It means we built the guide from sources, not from a visit. The label sits under the headline. When we have been somewhere ourselves, the page says so instead.

Research is good at telling you when a place is busy and how it compares with others. It cannot tell you what a place feels like, and we do not pretend it can.

04What will we not do?

• Publish hotel prices. They change constantly, so check the current price when you book.
• Give safety, visa or entry advice. Use your own government's official travel advice.
• Copy other travel or booking sites.
• Guess at causes. When the data shows when a place is busy but not why, we say so rather than fill the gap.
• Let commission decide what we cover. See our affiliate disclosure.

05Do you still need to check anything yourself?

Yes. Our guides help you decide where to go and when. Before you book, check prices, opening times, entry rules and official travel advice, because those change faster than any guide can.

06Found a mistake?

Tell us which page and what is wrong, and we will check it against the source and correct it. Our contact form is not open yet; the contact page will say how to reach us once it is.