Summer 2021: Italy is the fifth most searched country in the world by travelers

Italy is on the brink of the summer season, or rather, of what will be the second summer season marked by COVID: unlike last year, new tools have been introduced to facilitate travel and vacation safely, but there is still much uncertainty about the flows of this summer, the desired destinations, and the most active markets.

What the data shows is that the desire to travel is strong and that Italy is among the most sought-after destinations: with 7.4 million searches for air flights, Italy is the fifth most searched country in the world by travelers (preceded by the United States, Spain, Russia, and Brazil) with a strong growth trend in recent weeks. During April, in fact, searches increased at an average daily rate of 2.4%: compared to March, travelers’ interest in Italy increased by 29.5%, and the trend remains positive even in the first weeks of May.

It should be noted that most users (56%) are searching for flights departing in the short term, meaning by the end of May, but after more than four months of stagnation, this recovery in flows is certainly significant.

Last-minute bookings

Travelers are delaying, gathering information, and waiting until the last moment before booking: according to data from searches made directly on the booking engine of accommodation structures, tourists are planning a stay in Italy for the summer, at a daily average rate of 2.7%. Contrary to fears, Italians are not the only ones wanting to visit Italy: 80.7% of users are foreign, mainly from France (8.7%), Germany (8.4%), Switzerland (7.7%), the United States (7.5%), Belgium, and the Netherlands (5.9%).

Accommodation search: trends

Searches for accommodations are especially for July (36.3% of the total) and June (28.8%), but vary greatly depending on nationality: Italians have a booking window still low and mainly search for June (39.4%), while the share of searches in August drops to 28.3%. For the French, the best months are August (36.3%) and July (35.6%), as are for Belgian and Dutch tourists. Germans and Americans are the only ones interested in September.

Average length of search higher than expected

According to data, the average length of searches is relatively high: 20.7% of tourists are looking for accommodations for at least 10 nights, while 17.5% are searching for stays of at least 14 nights. The average stay duration varies depending on the period and increases in the central summer months: while in June the average search duration is 3.9 days, it increases to 6.6 in July and 7.2 in August. In June, 44.8% of searches are for stays of 1-3 nights, while for July, most searches (29.3%) are for stays of 10-12 nights; for August, 32.6% of searches are for stays of 10-12 nights.