Opodo(*) made a study of their bookings of January 2009. Comparing with the same period last year, it’s apparent that short city breaks in the eurozone are not this year’s things. The trend is that people are traveling to the southern hemisphere and that people are taking one longer holiday instead of a few short breaks.
Sounds like people want to make the most use of their tight budget by visiting destinations that provide good exchange rates for Euro and English pound. While the European hotspots, such as Paris and Florence, experience a fall in interest, long haul destinations have seen higher bookings.
The top-3 destinations with the biggest growth (source Opodo):
- Melbourne, Australia (up 400%)
- Singapore (up 219%)
- Delhi, India (up 165%)
(*) Opodo is an European online travel agency founded in 2001. The company is owned by a consortium of European airlines and Amadeus. Opodo operates sites in e.g. Germany, UK, France, Spain, etc. They plan to continue double digit growth in 2009.