Prague, Czech Republic – Leading travel tech company, Kiwi.com, has taken a look at the travel behaviors of their customers in 2023.  Over 22.9 billion kilometers were traveled by Kiwi.com customers this year, 35.7 billion searches were made to find the perfect route, price or destination for their travels and over 24 millions seats were booked. The most popular time and day of the week to book tickets in 2023 was at 19:00 on a Tuesday. 

Kiwi.com’s global reach meant the company saw over 200 different nationalities booking travel to more than 200 countries to 2,858 cities. Top destinations included London, Bangkok, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Rome, Istanbul, Warsaw, Kuala Lumpur, and Madrid. While overall these were always popular travel and leisure destinations, Warsaw and Madrid replaced Vienna and Lisbon in the global top ten favorite destinations when compared to last year.  From the European continent, London, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Rome, Warsaw, Lisbon, Madrid, Bucharest, and Vienna appeared as preferred destinations.

Examining the most booked countries on Kiwi.com, the United States led in 2023, followed by Spain, Italy, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Germany, Turkey, and Malaysia. On the European level, the trend was to stay within Europe with travel to Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, France, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Romania, and Turkey being the most booked. 

“The continued popularity of destinations like the United States and Thailand isn’t surprising. Thailand offers a rich nature and culture, affordable living costs, good infrastructure, and high safety standards, while the United States is a vast and diverse travel destination that offers a great range of experiences for all kinds of travelers interests,” explains Mario Gavira, VP of Growth at Kiwi.com.

Although early and mid-2023 showed a general rise in prices, the end-of-year figures present different results. On the global level, the average ticket price in 2023 was stable at €180.61 compared to €179.29 in 2022, with short-haul flights (0-1,499km) booked for €110.41, medium-haul flights (1,500-3,999km) for €192.95, and long-haul flights (4000km+) for €577.91. Ticket prices from the European continent rose slightly with the average ticket price in 2023 being €162.15, in comparison to €150.74 last year. This difference is driven mainly by LCCs (low-cost carriers), increasing their yields on the back of strong demand. 

Travelers this year demonstrated the tendency to plan more in advance, indicating a certain stability and further confidence in travel. In 2023 they booked 28 days in advance on average, which is four days more than in 2022, with 31% booking 21-60 days in advance. Nevertheless, one in five travelers booked within three days prior to traveling. Passengers booking return flights chose trips lasting on average six days.

Kiwi.com’s unique Virtual Interlining combines flights and routes from various air and ground carriers, creating unique itineraries. A more extreme example of such an itinerary saw a Kiwi.com customer build an itinerary with 18 segments (starting from Austin to Seattle, and continuing to Doha, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Mumbai, Kolkata, Paro, Kolkata, Lucknow, Abu Dhabi, Samarkand, İzmir, Istanbul, Yerevan, Milan, Reykjavik, Boston, and Austin) using Kiwi.com’s Virtual Interlining. 

Looking forward into 2024, a positive interest in travel is evident, with 3,530,031,534 searches already logged on Kiwi.com. Spain, Italy, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines lead as the top five global destinations booked so far. 

*Reservations made on Kiwi.com until 1 December for travel within the same year. 

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About Kiwi.com

Kiwi.com is a leading global travel-tech company headquartered in the Czech Republic, employing over 1,200 people worldwide. Kiwi.com’s innovative algorithm enables users to find better route options and prices other search engines can’t see, daily performing billions of price checks across 95% of global flight content. 100 million searches are carried out every day on Kiwi.com’s website and partner channels. On average, over 70,000 seats are sold daily.

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