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European travellers are looking to take longer trips with almost half (49%) searching for holidays of 12 days or more over the festive season, new travel trends research published today (Thursday) reveals.
Two-thirds of people are looking to get away for eight days or more and 48% are travelling as part of a group of two or more.
The top destination for Europeans over the Christmas and new year period is Bangkok (pictured), followed by New York City, London, Paris and Lisbon, according to the study by US-based travel performance marketing platform Sojern.
New York City has overtaken London this year as the second most popular destination for travellers from Europe this winter, while Paris has also moved up from sixth position to fourth position this year.
Lisbon is a new entrant in fifth place due to its potential warm winter weather, with Vienna and Amsterdam dropping off the top ten rankings.
December 19 is shaping up to be the most popular date to travel across Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the second most popular date to travel in North America, after December 23. Boxing Day is set to be the second most popular date to travel for Europeans.
Travellers searching for winter holidays earlier in the year were more driven by sun destinations such as Miami and Tenerife, at positions three and four compared with those searching closer to their departure date, who planned trips to cities such as London and Paris, the research shows.
At the same time, increasingly more travellers are leaving it late to book with “significantly fewer” searching for bookings 60 days or more before the departure date.
September was the most popular month for booking trips in the third quarter of the year, with 37% of all bookings taking place that month.
Globally, the most searched destinations during the July to September period were the US, Spain, the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, Thailand, Portugal and Russia.
Thailand re-entered the list after a quarter’s hiatus, replacing Greece.