Danish travellers used more mobile data abroad this summer, with Sweden remaining the clear number-one destination and Turkey recording by far the strongest growth among the top ten countries. New roaming data from Danish operator 3 offers a revealing snapshot of how mobile connectivity has become woven into the holiday experience — from maps and restaurant searches to payments, messaging and sharing photos.

The figures cover anonymised roaming activity from June 29 to August 9, 2026, across 3’s customer base of more than 1.8 million users. Importantly, the ranking measures total data consumed through 3LikeHome rather than visitor numbers, so it should be read as an indicator of travel and connectivity behaviour rather than a conventional tourism league table.

“When we look at roaming data, we get a unique insight into where Danes travel. At the same time, we can see that the mobile phone has become a natural part of the holiday experience. It is used for everything from navigation and payments to sharing experiences and keeping in touch with people back home,”

said Stefan Ring Støhrmann, Head of Network Operations and Customer Quality at 3.

Sweden dominates, but Turkey is the real mover

Sweden generated 1,391.41 TB of roaming data, up 21.4% from summer 2025. Germany reached 539.68 TB, while Italy recorded 534.06 TB; despite Germany actually generating slightly more data, 3’s published ranking places Italy second and Germany third.

The standout is Turkey. Data consumption there jumped 40.4% year on year, from 258.63 TB to 363.04 TB. Greece rose 21%, Norway 20.3%, while Croatia and Austria posted much more modest increases of 3.7% and 2.1% respectively.

“Although the classic holiday countries continue to account for a large share, every year we see shifts in which destinations are growing the most. That reflects changes in Danes’ travel habits and choice of holiday destinations,”

Støhrmann said.

The rise is not simply about people travelling more. A YouGov survey commissioned by 3 earlier this summer found that 80% of Danes surveyed felt their phone made holidays easier, particularly for photos and video, navigation, researching restaurants and attractions, and staying in touch.

Roaming is becoming invisible infrastructure

That behaviour fits a much wider mobile trend. Ericsson’s June 2026 Mobility Report found global mobile network data traffic grew 22% between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026. Travellers increasingly expect the same always-on digital habits abroad that they have at home: maps should load instantly, digital tickets should open, payments should work and messaging should remain uninterrupted.

In Europe, regulation has helped normalise that expectation. The EU’s Roam Like at Home framework lets customers use calls, texts and data across the EU and EEA under domestic-style charging rules, subject to fair-use safeguards. Turkey sits outside that regime, making its 40.4% increase particularly interesting. 3 includes Turkey within 3LikeHome, and its current consumer proposition covers 100 countries, with up to 75 GB available in included destinations outside the EU and UK depending on the plan.

READ MORE: 3 Denmark Triples Non-EU Roaming to 75GB

For travellers whose home operator does not include a destination such as Turkey, Switzerland, parts of Asia or the Americas on attractive terms, the competitive set is increasingly broader than traditional roaming packs. Travel eSIMs have become a mainstream alternative, and GSMA says global eSIM smartphone penetration is expected to reach 10% by the end of 2026. Juniper Research also describes travel eSIM as a rapidly growing market increasingly attracting mobile-operator participation.

Denmark’s visitors tell another story

3 also looked at foreign devices connecting to its Danish network. Germany ranked first, followed by France, the UK, the Netherlands and Spain, with Austria, the US, Romania, Italy and Belgium completing the top ten.

READ MORE: Why 2026 Will Be the Breakthrough Year for eSIM Adoption

This is useful directional data, but it should not be mistaken for official tourism statistics. The result is influenced by 3’s roaming agreements, network share and the devices that actually attach to its network. Eurostat has explored mobile-network data as a tourism-statistics source for years, but also stresses the need for consistent methodology when combining data from different operators.

Conclusion

The most important signal in 3’s summer numbers is not that Sweden remains popular. It is that holiday connectivity is becoming less of a separate “roaming decision” and more of an assumed utility.

That creates a tougher competitive environment. Operators such as 3 can defend roaming usage by bundling generous international allowances into the domestic subscription; travel eSIM providers compete by giving travellers a downloadable alternative when the home plan becomes expensive or restrictive. Neither model wins everywhere.

For frequent travellers already covered across 3LikeHome’s 100-country footprint, adding a separate travel eSIM may offer little practical benefit. But travellers moving beyond included destinations, needing a second connection, or comparing prices on high-volume data still have strong reasons to look elsewhere. The weak point for operator roaming remains transparency: country coverage, fair-use limits and out-of-bundle pricing need to be immediately understandable before departure.

The wider trend is clear. As mobile data consumption keeps rising and eSIM adoption expands, the winning travel-connectivity proposition will not simply offer more gigabytes. It will make connectivity so predictable that travellers barely have to think about it.