- Countries that make clear promises to welcome vaccinated travelers are being rewarded by strong surges in flight bookings
- Greece, and Iceland have announced that they will welcome vaccinated visitors this summer have seen inbound flight bookings pick up dramatically
- The correlation between vaccination rates and outbound travel is strong
According to the latest industry analysis of the most recent fight booking data available, vaccinations appear to hold the key to reviving international travel.
Two destinations, Greece, and Iceland, which have announced that they will welcome vaccinated visitors this summer have seen inbound flight bookings pick up dramatically from the moment of their announcements.
Three origin markets, Israel, the US and the UK, where vaccination campaigns are particularly well advanced, have seen outbound flight bookings climb more steeply than elsewhere.
Greece, whose economy is highly dependent on tourism, has led the way in announcing a willingness to welcome visitors who have been vaccinated, passed a COVID-19 test or recovered from the disease.
That public position has been rewarded in flight bookings from major outbound markets such as the US and the UK. For example, it tops the list of most popular destinations for British travellers this summer; so much so that confirmed tickets for travel between July and September are currently 12% ahead of where they were at the equivalent moment in 2019.
Furthermore, analysis of the most resilient destinations in Europe this summer reveals that seven of the top ten cities are Greek, with the island of Mykonos leading the list, with summer bookings currently standing at 54.9% of what they were at the equivalent point, pre-pandemic.
It is followed by the Spanish island, Ibiza, where bookings are at 49.2%. The next eight destinations in order of resilience are Chania (GR) 48.9%, Thira (GR) 48.1%, Kerkyra (GR) 47.5%, Thessaloniki (GR) 43.7%, Palma de Mallorca (ES) 41.2%, Heraklion (GR) 36.6%, Athens (GR) 33.2% and Faro (PT) 32.8%.
