Mastercard’s latest travel insights report reveals comprehensive data about more than 74 markets worldwide. The Mastercard Economics Institute’s Travel Trends 2024 report’s main findings hint at slowing demand in some markets, with a few bright spots showing spending at all-time highs.
According to the Mastercard Economics Insitute, the popular Mediterranean destinations are benefitting from efforts to extend the tourism season. In addition, more retirees and longer stays by most demographics are bright spots the researchers focused on. The institute predicted extended stays for 2024 some months back in another study.
This latest research is based on analysing aggregated and anonymized transaction data, including Mastercard Spending Pulse and third-party data sources. Natalia Lechmanova, Mastercard Economics Institute’s Chief Economist for Europe, was quoted giving the results:
Over the last decade, the share of overnight stays in the European Union during the interim period (May-June and September-October) has increased by 1.8 percentage points. This shift enables continued growth in European travel as the peak summer season faces capacity constraints.
Europe tourism is bolstered by more American travellers, even though interest rates and inflation have hampered travel plans for many. The number of overnight stays in Europe totalled 2.91 billion in 2023, up from 2.88 billion in 2019. The percentages of American tourists visiting Europe have also increased: the US share of arrivals in Spain, for instance, rose from 4% in 2019 to 5% in 2023, in Portugal from 6% to 9%, in the United Kingdom from 13% to 16%.
Interestingly, Munich ranks as the top popular European destination this summer (June-August 2024) as the city is set to host a major sporting event in June. The Bavarian destination is closely followed by Tirana (Albania), Nice (France), Corfu (Greece) and Istanbul (Turkey). In 2024, the cheaper coastal destinations of Albania, Croatia and Turkey record some of the highest increases in air traffic. Tourism in Albania is growing particularly strongly, with the number of air routes doubling from 2019 figures and tourist arrivals increasing from 12 million in 2019 to 17 million in 2023.
Finally, the new report shows that demand for the more frequented beach destinations in Greece, Portugal and Spain remains solid, largely due to off-season travel.