Weaker Euro Leads to Higher European Travel

Sojern, a performance marketing platform for travel brands, today released its Q1 Global Travel Insights Report based on the analysis of more than 800 million traveler intent data points across the globe.

From a currency perspective, the report reveals that the weaker euro is attracting larger numbers of global tourists to European countries this summer, while the stronger dollar has yet to have a negative effect on worldwide search and booking to the U.S. Looking at Q1 2015 compared to Q4 2014, there was an increase of 52% in searches to Europe from U.S. travelers and an increase of 38% in searches to Europe worldwide, says the report.

In February, Japan benefited from an increase in inbound travelers from countries celebrating the Lunar New Year. Week-on-week travel searches in Asia-Pacific saw a 313% increase for the holiday, according to the report.

In March, Tunisia and Egypt suffered the ill effects of a recent terror attack and the announcement of tighter visa rules, respectively. According to the report, searches to Tunisia dropped as much as 28% in March.

Throughout the quarter, searches to Cuba were on the rise from the U.S., as well as from other countries around the world (184% rise for Cuba searches from the U.S. and 45% worldwide), according to the report.

“Sojern’s first quarter report analyzes new patterns in travel around the globe, including seasonal events like Easter and Lunar New Year,” said Mark Rabe, Sojern’s CEO. “But it also serves as a crystal ball into summer 2015, as we distill millions of traveler intent data points into actionable insights for travel brands that want to reach consumers as they research summer holidays.”

Here are some other travel trends of the quarter, according to Sojern’s report:

- Top 10 global destinations: United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Mexico, Turkey, Greece and Thailand. Compared to last quarter, Russia and India exit the list (the former in spite of its current affordability), while Thailand joins as the only Asia-Pacific destination in the top 10. Greece re-enters the list after a quarter break.

- Europe is the top international destination in three of the four other markets: Middle East and Africa (45%), Asia-Pacific (33%) and North America (22%). And 71% of Europeans plan to explore their own continent this summer.

- The top summer travel months: North American travelers favor June, Europeans prefer August, Latin American and Asia-Pacific travelers are split between June and July and Middle East travelers prefer July.

- Top 10 cities for summer travel: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Barcelona and Bangkok.

- Traveling in groups of three or more: 27% of Europeans, 20% of travelers from the Middle East & Africa, 19% of Americans, 14% of Latin Americans and 12% of travelers from Asia-Pacific.

- Traveling solo: Asia-Pacific tops the list at 71% for travelers searching for solo travel this summer.

For the full Sojern report, visit http://www.sojern.com/q1-2015-global-travel-insights.html.