It looks like currency fluctuations and safety concerns are at the top of travellers’ minds in their holiday choice. Sojern, released its global findings for the first quarter based on the rigorous analysis of more than 800 million traveller insights across the globe.
It
looks like currency fluctuations and safety concerns are at the top of
travellers’ minds in their holiday choice. Sojern,
released its global findings for the first quarter based on the rigorous
analysis of more than 800 million traveller insights across the globe.
The report reveals that the weaker euro is attracting large
numbers of global tourists to European countries this summer, while the
stronger dollar has yet to have a negative effect on worldwide search and
booking to the US.
In February, Japan saw an increase in inbound travellers from
countries celebrating the Lunar New Year. In March, Tunisia and Egypt suffered
the ill effects of a recent terror attack and the announcement of tighter visa
rules, respectively.
“Sojern’s first quarter report analyzes new patterns in travel
around the globe, including seasonal events like Easter and Lunar New Year,”
said Mark Rabe, Sojern’s CEO. “But it also serves as a crystal ball into summer
2015, as we distill millions of traveller intent data points into actionable
insights for travel brands that want to reach consumers as they research summer
holidays.”
The most searched Asia-Pacific country was Thailand and the only
one to make it to top 10 of travel destinations. Industry insiders have said
that Thailand is resilient in the face of its political setbacks and holds
great interest for travellers.
Overall, the most searched destinations during the first quarter
of the year were the United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany,
France, Mexico, Turkey, Greece and Thailand. Compared to last quarter, Mexico
moves up three places, Russia and India exit the list (the former in spite of
its current affordability. Greece re-enters the list after a quarter break.
This spring, currency fluctuations (a stronger US dollar and
flagging euro) have pushed Europe into the limelight of global travel, as
travellers worldwide are able to explore the continent on a smaller budget.
Europe is the top international destination for summer travel in
three of the four other markets we studied: 45% of the Middle East and Africa,
33% of Asia-Pacific and 22% of North America ranks it number one for
non-domestic travel plans. 71% of Europeans are also planning to explore their
own continent this summer.
![]()
Asia-Pacific travellers also seem to favour June and July while
in the Middle East, July will be taking the lion’s share of summer travel at
47%.
The top destinations for summer travel across the globe are: Los
Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Barcelona and Bangkok. A whopping 27% of
Europeans are planning to travel in groups of three or more, followed by Middle
East & Africa travellers at 20%, 19% of Americans, 14% of Latin Americans
and 12% of travellers in Asia-Pacific.
The March 18 terrorist attack on the Bardo National Museum in
Tunisia’s capital Tunis seems to have impacted travel searches for the North
African country: searches dropped as much as 28% in March, from across all continents.
Egypt’s announcement of tighter visa rules for all travellers on
March 17 was also greeted with a drop in searches: an average decline of about
7% across regions, but as much as 14% in searches from Europe, arguably the
region of origin most affected by the new rules. Most recently, restrictions
have been postponed and searches climbed back up.