Interest in Traveling Abroad Grows but Demand Decreases: The Situation

The discovery of the new variant and the simultaneous worsening of the health situation in Europe has once again stirred the travel world, and the tourism sector has entered into yet another tug of war with the virus.

A growing number of countries are tightening restrictions day by day, trying in every way to contain the contagions: some have decided to close (again) their borders, others have reintroduced quarantine requirements for foreign travelers, or, like Germany, have decided to cancel iconic Christmas markets in Bavaria.

Italy, currently, is considered a low-risk zone but the atmosphere of tension and uncertainty created in recent weeks is discouraging Italians from traveling abroad. This is especially true during the high season for outbound travel: many Italians choose foreign destinations for the Christmas period, and this year the desire to go abroad was even stronger, considering that last year restrictions even banned inter-regional travel.

Italians and the Desire to Travel Abroad

Contrasting feelings are clearly reflected in the digital traces left by tourists: according to Lybra data on flight searches, Italians want to travel and in the last thirty days (November 10 – December 10), they searched for 17.5 million flights, of which 12.7 million were for destinations outside Italy.

The most searched destinations are European countries, with Spain leading at 2.3 million flights; nearly double the France, which ranks second with 1.2 million flights. Then comes the United Kingdom with 834 thousand flights and the United States, the top long-haul market in fourth place, with 736 thousand flights: regarding long haul, the United Arab Emirates ranks eighth due to strong demand for Dubai; follows Brazil in fifteenth place and Egypt in twentieth.

There is demand for traveling abroad, and the desire to travel has not diminished. However, it has undoubtedly experienced a sharp slowdown: compared to last month, searches for flights by Italian travelers decreased by 23.8%, a change that drops to 25.2% when considering international travel.

Incoming travel from Germany and Austria drops sharply

Germany, which is experiencing a very complicated health situation, has lost almost half of the Italian market: a -46.4% decrease in searches in a few weeks, partly due to the announcement of a possible lockdown and the cancellation of the famous Bavarian markets. Austria also records a significant loss (-44.2% in searches): again, the decline is mainly due to reintroduced restrictions, particularly the ban on entry for unvaccinated individuals. The Netherlands also saw a strong decline in Italian demand (-42.7%), as did the Czech Republic (-33.2%), the United Kingdom (-30.2%), Belgium (-29.3%), Portugal (-28.4%), and Greece (-27.6%).