• Traditionally popular Spain, Italy, France and Greece are keeping strong their top positions this summer

• Tirana joins the top 10 of most booked cities for summer 2024, with the budget-friendly beach destination of the Albanian Riviera steadily gaining popularity  

• Danes are ready to win the cup — an increase of 327% recorded on Kiwi.com from Danish travelers to Germany during the period of the football championship

Prague, Czech Republic — Europe is undoubtedly in for a great summer this year. In addition to the concerts and festivals that will be in full swing and the many beautiful beach destinations, major sports events such as the football championship in Germany and the summer games in Paris are also taking place. 

As hosts of the football championship, Germany joins the ranks of one of the top summer destinations booked on Kiwi.com so far this year by travelers from Europe. The increase in demand has seen the ticket prices within Europe to Germany rise by 46%, averaging at €168.74. The Danish fans are choosing football over the beach, with a fan-tastic jump of 327% more travelers booked on Kiwi.com heading to Germany than in 2023. More surprisingly, possibly thanks to the ‘Ted Lasso effect’, we also find Americans in the top ten nationalities heading to the country.  

Bookings made to travel between 14 June and 12 July show that the top nationalities to visit Germany are: British, Romanians, Spanish, Danish, Polish, French, Italians, Hungarians, Serbians, Americans, Austrians, Albanians, Croatians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Swedes, and Portuguese – almost all participating in the football championship.

Meanwhile, the world’s sporting elite will be battling it out in France. For the period of 25 July to 10 August, Kiwi.com global booking data indicates that 46% of travelers to France, are heading to Paris where the main event will take place and the cities of Lyon and Bordeaux are also top destinations this year – the locations for the football tournament for the games. The beach is not forgotten with traditional destinations of Nice and Marseille also making it to the top five destinations in France for the summer.  

The top five most booked routes are all to Paris:

• Prague to Paris
• London to Paris (up 45% compared to last year)
• Barcelona to Paris (up 53.8%)
• Madrid to Paris (up 53.8%)
• Rome to Paris 

Away from the sport, when it comes to the traditionally popular destinations, travelers are choosing, Barcelona, London, Rome, Paris, and Milan most frequently, followed by the more exotic Istanbul and Tirana—which started to gain popularity in the last years and made it to the top 10 in 2024—alongside Lisbon, Madrid, and Warsaw.

The routes from London to Istanbul and from London to Barcelona are the top two so far for this season, while among the top 10, Kiwi.com data shows that the bookings for the route Paris to Barcelona are up 34.7% compared to last year, Budapest to Istanbul up 36.7%, and Madrid to Warsaw jumps up to 125.8%, indicating potentially a shift to more unconventional summer destinations, in the hope to escape the rising temperatures. 

The prices of summer flight tickets from Europe are currently just 10.4% more expensive than last year. Short-distance flights increased by 15%, medium-distance by 5%, and long-distance flights saw a decrease of 8.3%.  With the average booking window (the time in advance one buys their ticket) currently at 38 days, it means that many are yet to book their summer getaways. 

–ENDS–

About Kiwi.com
Kiwi.com is a leading global travel tech company headquartered in the Czech Republic. Kiwi.com’s innovative algorithm enables users to find better route options and prices other search engines can’t see, performing billions of price checks per day 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 50,000 seats are sold daily.