Online Searches for Travel to Athens Increase in Summer, Says Survey

The interest of international holidaymakers for Athens has grown stronger during the last few months, with online searches for the Greek capital picking up pace in July compared to the previous months, according to a survey conducted by travel and tourism marketing agency Tourix.

Titled “Tourism Demand via internet related to accommodation for the destination of Athens”, the survey was conducted by Tourix Analytics based on data provided by Google. The volume of searches was collected with the use of 1,819 search terms that were directly related to accommodation in Athens.

According to the survey’s findings, despite a drop in January and February 2021, online searches for Athens began to stabilize in March and gradually increase from April onwards.

More specifically, during April – July, online searches increased in most countries except from the UK probably due to the strict Covid-19 travel restrictions that were in effect in the country at that time.

Year-on-year search volume (%)

Meanwhile, in July 2021, online searches for Athens increased by 192 percent in the US compared to the same month last year.

The increase reached 51 percent in France; 48 percent in The Netherlands; 36 percent in Cyprus; 27 percent in Germany; 25 percent in Italy and 7 percent in the UK.

Online search volume on a monthly basis (%)

Other key findings of the survey include:

• In July, the number of searches decreased compared to the previous month, with the exception of France, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
  

  Search volume per country

More specifically, online searches rose by 40 percent in the UK; 14 percent in France; 2 percent in The Netherlands but dropped by 4 percent in Cyprus; 3 percent in the US and 7 percent in Italy.

• The largest increase in online searches occurred in May, and also indicated the strong interest of potential holidaymakers from the aforementioned six countries for Athens.

• Since the start of 2021, online searches have increased in the US and France but have dropped in the other four countries – mainly in Cyprus and the UK.