Travel Surveys in Europe: More than one problem to achieve this the results of several national tourism research projects have to be reviewed. It is known that the situation of tourism research in Europe is not satisfying, even though now almost every country has a more or less regulary travel survey. From a scientific point of view it is necessary that these surveys are valid and reliable, which is difficult to prove. Anyway it is true that this objective can only be met by a high standard of quality. Particular problems, however, may rise from comparing national surveys, and even more so when time series are involved. Lack of comparability already starts with the definitions, and the results vary with different methodological approaches. This is especially true for shortbreak holidays. Figure 1 shows the astonishing effects of minor changes in the methodological approach. For not blaming others, it's an example of our own research work. It demonstrates that a higher frequency of surveys p.a. (1985 RA/KONTI RA) or a slightly modified question (KONTI RA 85/KONTI RA 89) makes up for a higher number of shorttrips.