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Europe travel trends 2024: Sunny skies

Published: May 29, 2024 | Updated: October 29, 2025

6 min read

Two female friends looking over a river

Introduction

2024 is shaping up to be a strong year for the experience economy, according to The Mastercard Economics Institute’s fifth-annual travel report, Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries. 

Nine out of the last 10 record-setting spending days in the global cruise and airline industry have occurred in 2024, and the Mastercard Economics Institute anticipates this momentum will continue. For the travel industry, tourism and the resilient consumer are the bright spots in the global macroeconomy with more people traveling than ever before.

 

The surge in travel sector spending reflects a strong labor market and a desire to travel.

 

Tourists worldwide are spending an extra day on vacation on average.

 

Consumers continue to prioritize meaningful experiences over material goods, even when traveling.

 

Cruise travel demand is booming as a more budget-friendly getaway option.

Top themes in the European region

Here’s how the dynamics are playing out in Europe:

  • The travel industry shines as one of the most resilient sectors within the European economy. 2023 marked a full recovery in the number of overnight stays, with 2.91 billion stays in 2023, up from 2.88 billion in 2019.
  • The outperformance of travel has driven an outperformance of economies with high tourism, such as Croatia, Greece, Portugal and Spain. In Greece, daily average flight traffic is up 13.1% April 2024 YTD, compared to April 2019 YTD.
  • With consumers adjusting to higher prices, cheaper and sunnier destinations are seeing strong travel growth. Tourist arrivals in Albania rose from 12 million in 2019 to 17 million in 2023.
  • Tourists in Europe are shifting away from peak summer (July-August) towards “shoulder” months (May-June and September-October).

Trending destinations in Europe

Thanks in part to joining the Schengen Area, airlines have expanded service to Romania and brought in additional tourists. 

Kerkyra, Greece is a trending tourist destination thanks in part to its beaches and strong travel growth outside the peak summer months. 

Munich, Germany ranks as the top trending global tourist destination for this summer (June-August 2024), with the largest increase in tourism demand heading into the season thanks in part to the UEFA European Football Championship.

Albania is an unexpectedly high trending destination, and is notably much more wallet-friendly compared to major tourism hubs in other coastal European economies.

Spending while traveling

Consumer spending on travel remains strong. Some behaviors stand out: 

  • Experiential oriented spend – like nightlife – continues to gain importance over retail shopping in the priorities of travelers globally.
  • The share of total sales attributed to global tourism spending on experiences as of March 2024 is 12% higher than ever before.
  • There is much stronger demand for luxury over casual in markets like Japan and United Arab Emirates. 
  • The picture is mixed for dining out globally. Tourists favor a laid-back experience in countries like Spain and Brazil, whereas the fine dining scene is burgeoning in India.

Leisure for longer

Tourists and leisure travelers are enjoying more time on vacation. Here are some of the impacts:

  • Longer trips are translating to an extra boost for destinations.
  • Longer stays generally translate to more spend per trip and can translate to an economic boost for local economies.
  • There is a clear inverse relationship between price of destination and days. Cheaper destinations =  longer stays.  
  • In addition, the warmer the destination, the more time consumers tend to spend there. 

 

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