International flights to European destinations in July and August reached less than 40% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest independent study.
The countries which fared worst were those relying more on long-haul tourism, such as France and Italy, and those which imposed the most onerous and volatile travel restrictions like the UK, which languished at the bottom of the list, achieving just 14.3% of 2019 levels.
Greece was the clear winner over the summer holiday peak months, achieving 86% of 2019 arrivals, new research by flight booking data firm ForwardKeys revealed.
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Cyprus achieved 64.5%, Turkey, 62% and Iceland, 61.8%.
The statistics showed an improvement on last year’s level of 26.6% when the Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread lockdowns and vaccines were not yet approved.
Greece and Iceland were among the first countries to make widely publicised claims that they would accept visitors who had been fully vaccinated and/or could show a negative PCR test and could show proof of recovering from Covid-19.
However, the picture was mixed, with some destinations doing better than others.
And the outlook is not improving, as bookings slowed towards the end of the summer period.
Excluding low-cost carriers, intra-European flights made up 71.4% of arrivals, compared with 57.1% in 2019.
The relative disappearance of long-haul visitors, who typically stay longer, spend more and focus their attention on cities and sightseeing, was underlined in rankings of the best and worst performing local destinations.
Travel to London was “particularly disappointing” – coming bottom of a list of busiest European cities, achieving just 14.2% of 2019 arrivals.
The list was headed by Palma, reaching 71.5% of 2019 levels. and Athens, a gateway to the Greek islands, at 70.2%.
The next best performing major cities were Istanbul, 56.5%; Lisbon, 43.5%; Madrid, 42.4%; Paris, 31.2%; Barcelona, 31.1%; Amsterdam, 30.7%; and Rome, 24.2%.
Leisure destinations proved to be more resilient by comparison.
The leaders were Heraklion and Antalya, which exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 5.8% and 0.5% respectively. They were followed by Thessaloniki, 98.3%; Ibiza, 91.8%; Larnaca, 73.7% and Palma, 72.5%.
Certain destinations fared relatively better or worse for more locally specific reasons.
Portugal suffered when the UK abruptly changed its designation from green to amber in June and Spain was hit at the end of July when Germany warned against all but essential travel.
ForwardKeys insights vice president Olivier Ponti said: “When one considers how dreadful things were for tourism in Europe last year, this summer has been a very modest recovery story.
“Benchmarked against normal times, the continued low intensity of international air travel, less than 40% of normal, has been extremely damaging for the aviation industry.
“The continued absence of long-haul travellers, particularly from the Far East – it reached just 2.5% of pre-pandemic volumes this summer – will prove a severe blow to the visitor economy of several European countries.”
He added: “If there is an element of consolation, it is people ‘staycationing’, ie: taking a holiday in their own country.
“While the domestic aviation has a minority share of the market in Europe in normal times, it has held up much better during the pandemic because it has not been subject to such challenging travel restrictions. For example, the Canaries and the Balearics welcomed more Spanish visitors than they do in a normal season.”