[Infographic] Sojern's Q2 Global Trave Insights Report Uncovers New Globally Trending Destinations and Offers Travel Forecast
Cuba Continues to Rise Globally, Spain is Top Destination for UK Travellers in Q3 & Q4, and Haiti Re-Emerges as a Top 20 Destination for Americans
LONDON, 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 traveller intent data points across the globe.
Q2 2015 Global Travel Trends: The Bird's Eye View
Compared with the previous two quarters, travellers across studied regions searched for destinations closer to home, eschewing long-haul trips in favour 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. In Europe, London took the lead in the cities, while Spain remained the champion for country searches.
Beyond the top 10, here are the destinations that captured the most traveller interest by region since summer 2014:
- 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 of moved seven places up in the ranking. The UK showed the steadiest rise in ranking for traveller interest across the three quarters, while Thailand showed the most dramatic drop in searches.
- For travellers 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 travellers 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.
- 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.
Cuba Continues To Gain Interest from Travellers 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. Daily travel intent volumes for Greece had been developing similar to its four closest competitors around the Mediterranean (Croatia, Italy, Spain and Turkey) until around the middle of June with an average gap of 4 percent. Following the announcement of the referendum, travel intent numbers to Greece had gone down by around 23 percent globally, and the gap between Greece and its aforementioned competitors increased up to 30 percent. As of 8th July, Sojern was already seeing indications of a rebound in traveller interest and the gap between Greece and it's competitors is starting to steadily close but has not been closed yet.
London was Americans' Favourite International Fourth of July Destination
Looking at travellers who booked their fourth of July flights a week or more before the holiday, London remained America's favourite international destination even on the fourth of July this year, a preference reinforced by the Wimbledon tournament overlapping with the holiday (29th June – 12th July), followed by Cancun, Mexico and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Spain is Top Destination for UK Travellers in Q3 & Q4 2015
UK travellers looking for some time away in Q3 2015 have been searching for trips to Spain, UK and Italy with the top three cities for the next quarter listed as Malaga, Alicante and Barcelona. This is based on UK traveller searches in Q2 2015. In Q4 UK travellers are planning to head to Spain, United States and Portugal. Those seeking some sunshine are planning to visit Australia which is coming in as the 5th most popular country for UK travellers in Q4. The top three cities for UK travellers in Q4 2015 are currently Alicante, Tenerife and Malaga. New York City is currently listed as the 8th most popular city for Q4 breaks for UK travellers.
For more information, please visit www.sojern.com.
About Sojern
Sojern is a leading travel marketing platform designed to boost growth and profitability for the travel industry. The Sojern Travel Marketing Platform is a set of easy-to-use software and services that delivers unrivaled traveler insight, intelligent audiences, multichannel activation and optimization, and a connected guest experience—all in one place. More than 10,000 travel marketers rely on our platform annually to find, attract, convert and engage travelers. Founded in 2007, Sojern is headquartered in San Francisco, California with teams in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific.
