Excerpt from Travel Weekly
Several major cruise lines, travel agents and even Google all seem to agree that Europe is in high demand this booking season.
Data from various sources indicate that interest in and bookings for Europe travel have been strong in the past six months.
European cities made up five of the top 20 destinations people are searching this year on Google, according to an analysis by Google Flights. The platform found Paris, London, Rome, Athens and Lisbon made the list of top searches from January through mid-April.
ForwardKeys vice president of insights Olivier Ponti said during the World Travel & Tourism Council's Global Summit in Manila, Philippines, that an analysis of booked flights as of April 5 for travel from July to August showed "a strong reactivation of transatlantic travel."
"This is the revival of city tourism and cultural tourism," Ponti added, pointing to demand for European destinations such as Italy.
In a Travel Weekly survey conducted in late April, 77% of travel advisors said their clients booked international trips to Europe in the past six months. That's ahead of also popular Caribbean and Mexico trips, which 70% and 68% of travel advisors say they booked, respectively.
And travel advisors said in interviews that Europe bookings are hot right now.
"Europe has just blown up," said Suzy Schreiner, a cruise and Europe specialist at Seattle-based Azure Blue Vacations.
Clients are not only eager to visit destinations on their bucket lists, she added, but are attracted to Europe because borders are open again after many were closed during the pandemic.
Dennis Nienkerk, a luxury cruise specialist for Strong Travel Services in Dallas, said European sailings have been so strong that he's made about $120,000 in sales in the past two days.
"Even if they've been before, they want to go back. They're willing to go through the whole Covid routine," he said.
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