A Year in Travel 2021 by eDreams ODIGEO

LONDON, Oct. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- eDreams ODIGEO, Europe's largest online travel company and number 2 in the world for flight bookings, has analysed booking data from its customers, to reveal how travel has altered in the last year as we learned to live with Covid-19, revealing the year's top destinations and evolving booking habits as well as appetites and trends for 2022.

Earlier this summer, eDreams ODIGEO polled 10,000* customers across the UK, Europe and the USA to explore how travelers were feeling. An astonishing 57% of Americans with savings of $1,000 responded that they would choose to spend it on travel and 61% ranked traveling the world as their most therapeutic pastime. This gives great hope now that restrictions are lifting and travelers can rediscover the delights of travel worldwide.

eDreams ODIGEO 2021 bookings & search data reveals:

TOP DESTINATIONS 2021:

For our American travelers, all 2021 destinations were domestic, reflecting the stringent travel regulations and bans in place in the US. Las Vegas, Orlando and Denver were the most popular destinations for Americans this year, followed by Atlanta, Miami, Fort Lauderdale & Los Angeles. 

TOP SEARCHES 2021:

Top search data follows the booking trends with American cities only, such as Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, Miami and Los Angeles. Only Cancun, in 8th position, is outside of the US.

TRAVEL HABITS:

How long did the Americans travel for in 2021?

In 2021, 54% of eDreams ODIGEO American customers chose to travel for short breaks from 2 to 4 days.

With uncertainty still at the forefront of travel decisions, long-term planning was replaced by last-minute action, with the majority of US travellers (39%) choosing to book within a two week window of departure - followed by 24% of them booking 16 - 30 days before departure.

2022 PREDICTIONS:

As the world begins to open up, consumer confidence is returning and attention has shifted to long haul destinations. European countries are popular for travel next year, with four European countries in the top 2022 booked destinations (Rome, Paris, Madrid & Lisbon).

European travelers are also enthusiastic about US borders opening on 8th November. New York City comes 2nd in the top global searches ranking for 2022, followed by Miami in 7th position, Orlando in 8th & Los Angeles in 9th.

Pablo Caspers, Chief Travel Officer of eDreams ODIGEO, commented that, "Since the beginning of 2021 we have seen that the desire to travel has never disappeared - search data shows our customers have continued to dream and plan ahead despite travel restrictions. Bookings continued to increase as vaccination programmes progressed, and today, we have really encouraging figures. From June to August our figures have been above pre-COVID levels. At eDreams ODIGEO we are proud of our work carried out over the last two years: reinventing travel for our customers, providing innovative solutions and expanding our product offering for a consumer base that has had to adapt its travel habits. The situation is improving everyday, and we are emerging from this challenging period stronger than ever."

Website showing full report data here.

Methodology

The eDreams ODIGEO 2021 A Year in Travel Report is collated utilising flight booking data from the company's online travel agency brands (eDreams, Opodo, Go Voyages and Travellink). It covers the periods from 1st January to 15th October 2021 with data from major European markets and the USA. The main European markets are Sweden, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and the UK.

Travelling dates: 1st January to 31 December 2021.

About eDreams ODIGEO

eDreams ODIGEO is one of the world's largest online travel companies and one of the largest e-commerce businesses in Europe. Under its four leading online travel agency brands – eDreams, GO Voyages, Opodo, Travellink, and the metasearch engine Liligo – it serves more than 17 million customers per year across 45 markets. Listed on the Spanish Stock Market, eDreams ODIGEO works with over 650 airlines and has partnerships with 130. The brand offers the best deals in regular flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, cruises, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance to make travel easier, more accessible, and better value for consumers across the globe.

*Research conducted 6th-14th July 2021 by One Poll for eDreams ODIGEO. 10,000 adults who have been on holiday abroad in the last five years were polled in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, USA and UK. 2,000 of these respondents were based in the US.

SOURCE eDreams ODIGEO