Summer Travel Trends: A Record-Breaking Year Equals New Opportunities for Travel Marketers
When summer hits, travel goes full steam ahead–and this year is no exception.
When summer hits, travel goes full steam ahead–and this year is no exception. According to Reuters, summer 2024 travel will reach record levels, with 4.4 billion people expected to embark on a trip. While some travelers may be families with kids who are on summer break and others may be solo travelers ready for adventure, plenty of demographics are hitting the ground running.
So who are 2024’s summer travelers and, more importantly, why are they travelling? Our summer travel insights can help you better understand travelers to capitalize on the summer surge.
Traditional European Hotspots Reign Supreme
From basking on Mediterranean beaches to breathtaking mountains, Europe has long been a popular summer travel destination–and 2024 is no different. Overall, international travel to Europe is up 7% compared to 2023 and inter-European travel is up 5%. However, domestic travel dipped slightly, dropping 3% compared to last year. While many of the popular international destinations may be at capacity, hotel marketers can vie for last-minute domestic bookings by offering packages or discounts to encourage local staycations or closer-to-home excursions.
Spain has always been popular with international and domestic travelers alike. Travelers are still flocking to Spain this summer, with international travel up 14%, travel from other European countries up 4%, and domestic travel up 3%, bucking the overall European domestic travel trend. Germans and Americans are the most likely to visit Spain, with the two countries making up 28.5% of all flight bookings. Madrid and Barcelona are the top destinations for flights while Barcelona and Madrid hotels are booked most often. Spain is certainly seeing its share of international travelers, but 32.6% of summer hotel bookings are coming from domestic travelers within Spain.
While demand for these traditional summer Spanish hotspots is great for travel marketers, it’s not without impact. Overtourism, which is when travel demand exceeds what a destination can physically handle, impacts local culture and the environment alike. To combat damage to the area and even frustration from residents, travel marketers must actively shift campaign focus to destination protection–not just promotion. By becoming part of the solution, travel marketers can ensure destinations remain both available and sustainable for the long term.
This summer, Italy continues to woo travelers with its array of history, art, and culture. Both flight and hotel bookings are up 10% year-over-year, and the United States is the top feeder market. Rome (35.1%), followed by Milan (16.7%) and Venice (9.9%) are the most popular flight destinations.
In addition to Italy, American travelers are descending upon other European destinations, booking 16.5% of flights to Germany and 20.3% of flights to France. This is no surprise, as the Paris Olympics are a massive draw from around the world, particularly for Americans.
Neighboring destinations can capitalize on travel demand to larger Spanish and Italian cities by advertising unique excursions, slow and sustainable travel, and the charm of going off-the-beaten-path. From the time travelers are considering their holidays all the way up until they leave, marketers have the opportunities to persuade them to extend their trips.
Despite the Olympics, Paris is a Less Popular Destination than in 2023
Paris is always a popular destination and, as the host of the 2024 Olympic Games, fans are flocking to the city to root for their countries. During the Olympic Games, Sojern data shows that flight bookings to Paris are up 125% compared to the same travel period last year.
Despite the Olympics buzz, Paris is less popular than last year, at least when measured against other European cities. While the city is still in the top five European destinations, Sojern’s end of June data noted a 13% decrease in domestic flights from within France and a 2% decrease from other European and international countries, while hotel bookings have dropped by 12% compared to the same period in 2023.
Unsurprisingly, Paris is still France’s most popular destination this summer, with 59.9% of flight bookings and 61.7% of overnight bookings. Nice and Côte d'Azur come in second place with 18% and 12.4% of reservations while Marseille ranks third with 5.2% of flight bookings. Lyon slightly edges out Marseille in hotel bookings, which may be a result of Lyon’s numerous train promotional campaigns.
For travel marketers, large-scale sporting an entertainment events are great opportunities to upsell or cross-sell ancillary packages and services to travelers, such as offering DoorDash codes for post-concert late night bites where hotels share in the revenue or even spa packages to unwind after a long day of watching sport.
LGBTQ+ Travelers Are Showing Their Pride–and Looking for Love!
Beyond the Olympics, June’s PRIDE celebrations were a huge draw for the LGBTQ+ community. While many packed their bags in June, their interest was piqued back in February. According to Sojern’s data, flight search and bookings to Pride festivals, including Thessaloniki, the location of Europride 2024, jumped on Valentine’s Day and the day after. During the Pride parade weekend in Thessaloniki, weekend trips spiked a whopping 250%, highlighting the fact that travelers will book a trip specifically to show their Pride.
Travel marketers can get a jump on Pride planning for next year to entice travelers to celebrate. As the Europride host city for 2025, Lisbon will be an inevitable hot spot, and neighboring destinations can roll out inclusive campaigns for Pride-driven travelers to extend their trips, particularly around the Valentine’s Day search spikes.
What’s Travel Like in the Rest of the World?
Europe has long cornered the summer travel market, and this year is no exception given events like the European Championships, Olympics, and PRIDE festivals. However, outside of Europe, travel bookings remain similar to 2023 but below 2022 levels. Unlike the past few years, travelers are now booking trips further in advance–but they’re taking shorter trips. Currently, just over 55% of travelers are taking one-to-two day trips compared to just over 48% in 2022.
The Asia-Pacific region (APAC) had high spring travel interest in 2024, and that demand likely resulted in a summer slowdown. While this year’s bookings are only slightly below 2023, travel to the region is down compared to 2022. In addition, approximately 37% of travelers are booking trips one or more months in advance compared to just over 28% in 2022.
Much like APAC, summer flight bookings to Latin America are below 2022 levels. However, bookings to Latin America and the United States are slightly up compared to 2023. Overall, summer bookings are trending slightly downward since spring.
Inflation is likely putting a dent in traveler budgets, which could account for the drops in travel demand from 2022 to 2024. Travel marketers can entice new visitors by offering budget-friendly options to give travelers great experiences–without spending a fortune.
Conclusion
This summer, European travel is going strong while demand for other parts of the world has flattened. For European travel marketers, this is a golden opportunity to piggyback off of summer demand to incentivize travelers to book off- or shoulder season trips long into fall. For marketers in other regions of the world, highlighting fun activities, unique lodging, and less expensive vacation opportunities may be just what travelers need to hit the book button. Given the changes in lead time and trip duration, travel marketers can parlay the summer season into fall and winter demand by highlighting shorter staycations or quick weekend getaways.
Please note: In this blog, summer travel is considered to be between June 1st - Aug 31st and the travel is booked before, so the booking date is up until end June. The booking period would be from the second half of 2023 to the end of June 2024.
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