SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., July 30, 2015 — Sojern, the world’s leading performance marketing platform for travel brands, today released its Q2 Global Travel Insights Report based on the rigorous analysis of more than a billion traveler intent data points across the globe.
Q2 2015 Global Travel Trends: The Bird’s Eye View
Compared with the previous two quarters, travelers across studied regions searched for destinations closer to home, eschewing long-haul trips in favor of domestic and regional trips. Globally, the most searched destinations during the second quarter of the year were: the United States, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Portugal, Turkey, Greece and Russia. The latter re-entered the list after a quarter’s hiatus, replacing Thailand.
Destinations with the Most Dramatic Rise in Traveler Interest Year on Year
Beyond the top 10, here are the destinations that captured the most traveler interest by region since summer 2014:
- In North America, Haiti moved up 34 ranks since summer 2014, after experiencing a dramatic decline in tourism in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, followed by Iceland, up 11 spots.
- In Western Europe, Cuba pushed up 12 places to position 41, thanks to a lot of media attention and the detente with the US. Czech Republic, Iceland and Romania each moved seven places up in the ranking.
- For travelers from Latin America, Aruba’s appeal increased over last year, pushing it up 11 spots, followed, by Hungary, up 10 spots. The latter is one of the more affordable European destinations, as a non-Eurozone country.
- In Southeast Asia, Bangladesh moved up eight spots and Qatar seven since summer 2014.
- For travelers from the Middle East, Sudan gained the most popularity (up 24 spots), followed closely by Bosnia and Herzegovina (21 spots), a country which the World Tourism Organization estimates will have the third highest tourism growth rate in the world by 2020.
Cuba Continues To Gain Interest from Travelers Globally
Cuba continued its upward trajectory this past quarter, moving up another spot since Q1, to position 14 on the list of top 20 most popular Caribbean destinations for Americans. That is a five-place jump up from number 19 back in December 2014, which means that now Cuba ranks higher than Antigua and Barbuda, Curacao, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the British Virgin Islands. The Caribbean island state also moved up on West Europeans’ radars, climbing 12 places since summer 2014.
Greece Remains Tourist Magnet, In Spite of Financial Troubles
Over the past two quarters, Greece remained in the top 10 most popular destinations globally, and in the top 10 most popular destinations for Europeans, although they dropped in the latter by four places to position eight in the last quarter. Following the announcement of the referendum, travel intent numbers to Greece had gone down by around 23 percent globally, but, as of July 8, Sojern was already seeing indications of a rebound in traveler interest.
Post-Ramadan Travel Skyrockets in the Middle East
Following the conclusion of Ramadan, the average regional week-on-week travel intent peaked at 180 percent in the Middle East. July 16 was the heaviest travel day, followed by a four-day period of consistently high travel volumes. Average trip durations also increased significantly: 63 percent of travelers from the region looked to travel for more than eight days and almost 45 percent for 12 days or more, at least partially reflecting the number of public holidays observed in the region.
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About Sojern
Sojern is travel’s leading data-driven performance marketing engine. Through its Sojern Traveler Platform and billions of traveler intent signals across online and mobile channels, Sojern puts more heads in beds and travelers in town for its clients worldwide. Currently one of the fastest growing travel tech companies, Sojern works with top travel brands and independent hotels in North America, Latin America, Europe, MEA and APAC. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with key offices in Dubai, London, New York, Omaha and Singapore. For more information, please visit sojern.com
