European travellers look to international travel
Jun 12, 2020
12th June 2020: As restrictions in Europe are eased, some of the major mainland European nations have seen substantial growth week on week. Some of the best performing nations versus last week are France (+104%), Switzerland (+64%), Belgium (+141%), Spain (+95%) and Italy (+53%).
Alongside increased booking volumes, we can see new trends emerging. Contrary to trends in North America, there has been significant upward movement in international bookings within Europe. Looking at the percentage split in domestic and international in our booking data, we can see the share of international bookings increasing by 3 percentage points week on week: 55% this week compared to 52% last week.
The stand-out nations driving the growth in total bookings outlined above are also driving the international trend, with the traffic across these nations showing a larger concentration of international bookings week on week: Germany (+5pp), France (+8pp), Spain (+3pp), Belgium (+4pp), Switzerland(+1pp).
These latest developments provide us with a glimpse into consumer confidence levels in travel and their expectations for late summer. Looking at booking lead times, we can see confidence increasing continually as customers look to travel to other EU nations in the later end of the summer. 52% of international bookings are for pick dates from 31-90 days (July-Sept), versus just 29% last year.