Travel Intent to Greece Continues to Gain Momentum, Says Sojern

Travel intent to Greece in the post-coronavirus world has revived since July 5 and continues to gain momentum at a greater pace than the other markets, according to digital travel solutions provider Sojern.

Citing data collected on July 27, Sojern said that while there has been no major growth in searches to any selected European destination within the last few weeks, Greece remains the country with the highest levels of travel intent compared to last year at -15 percent.

YoY% Global Flight Searches to Key European Markets

Moreover, Greece, along with the UK, Switzerland and Poland, are countries all showing more growth in bookings than in searches.

“This is a good sign that travel confidence is returning in these markets. However, in the remaining markets, bookings are lagging behind, as travellers continue to deliberate if they are confident in booking their trip whilst travel restrictions are still changing on a regular basis,” Sojern said.

According to Sojern, global flight bookings to Greece in particular have almost returned to 2019 levels, sitting at -8% year-over-year (YoY).

YoY% Global Flight Bookings to Key European Markets

Germans feel confident booking to Greece

Taking a look at where travellers situated in Germany intend to travel and feel most confident booking to, Sojern found that flight searches originating in the country show the true impact of the success countries such as Greece and Italy have had in recent months of managing the spread of COVID-19.

“It is very clear when looking at flight searches to a selection of key markets for German travellers, that travel confidence in Greece (one of the most successful countries in managing cases) has gone from previously the lowest of those shown below (pre-COVID impact), to now displaying the most positive recovery,” Sojern said.

According to the data, YoY search levels have risen above those recorded for the same period in 2019, and have overtaken YoY searches seen in February 2020, before the impact of the coronavirus.

“This suggests that Greece is replacing other destinations in the minds of German travellers, and this will have an impact on the other outbound destinations for the area. Flight searches to Italy, Spain, and Turkey have all shown YoY growth, but none as drastically as Greece. On average there is a steady increase in outbound regional travel, gradually returning to 2019 intent levels,” Sojern said.

YoY% German Origin Flight Searches to Key European Markets

According to Sojern, September bookings to Greece are above the levels experienced in German outbound travel in 2019.

“Trips continue to be booked to Greece for September suggesting that travel confidence is high, and German travellers are still dreaming of their Greek summer holidays,” Sojern said.

Sojern’s insights are based on over 350 million traveler profiles and billions of travel intent signals. However, it does not capture 100 percent of the travel market.