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Everything skyrocketed.
Steve Perillo, CEO and owner of Perillo Tours, based in New Jersey, has not witnessed such a surge in tourist bookings to Europe since the 1970s.
Steve Perillo says customized tours to Italy typically sell at around 80% capacity in a year. So far in 2023, about 96% of Perillo Tours' 500 annual departures, including Spain and Greece as destinations, have been booked, with expectations of reaching 100% within weeks, before the company begins marketing for 2024.
Over the past few weeks, many European centers have been overflowing with tourists, and sold-out hotels, crowded museums, and overloaded restaurants have become increasingly common, especially in popular cities like Barcelona, Rome, and Paris.
According to travel insurance provider Allianz Partners, the number of Americans traveling to Europe this summer is expected to increase by 55% compared to last year, and by more than 600% compared to 2021. London, Paris, and Dublin top the list of the 10 most popular destinations in 2023, according to Allianz's annual assessment; Rome, Reykjavik, Amsterdam, and Lisbon also made it into the top 10.
The European Travel Commission (ETC) also forecasts strong demand for European holidays in 2023, with nearly half of destinations on the continent expected to return to more than 80% of their 2019 levels.
Of course, all that demand has driven prices up sharply. According to flight tracking website Hopper, airfares to Europe are at their highest level in five years. According to a company spokesperson, a round-trip ticket to the continent now averages over $1,200, about $300 higher than in 2022 and a 26% increase from pre-pandemic prices in 2019.
Hotel prices are also rising. According to American Express Global Business Travel (AEGBT), hotel prices in Europe will increase most sharply in 2023. Paris (up 10% year-on-year), Stockholm (9%), and Dublin (8.5%) are among the destinations predicted by AEGBT to see the highest increases.
Meanwhile, at other destinations across the continent, popular shows like HBO's "The White Lotus" and Netflix's "Emily in Paris" have also attracted a large number of photography enthusiasts. According to data from Expedia, searches for flights to cities in Sicily (the idyllic island where the second season of "The White Lotus" was filmed) have tripled this summer, with searches to Messina increasing by 335% and Palermo by 180%.
Tourists visiting Europe's top holiday destinations may have to jostle with crowds this summer. Photo: CNN
Jenn Rice, a journalist and brand consultant in North Carolina, witnessed that popularity firsthand on a recent trip to Palermo, describing the Sicilian capital as “absolutely crazy” in early June, with tourists “flooding the streets as if it were Mardi Gras.”
In Paris, Arnaud Morandi, General Manager of Fauchon L'Hôtel Paris, a 54-room, five-star boutique hotel, said that visitors hoping to secure last-minute tickets for events such as the ongoing French Open, major concerts, or make reservations at up-to-date restaurants would dampen expectations.
Flexibly adjust the plan.
To cope with record crowds and higher costs this summer, many travelers to Europe have been forced to adjust their plans. Many are relying on trains and ferries to avoid expensive flights, even on budget airlines like easyJet and Ryanair.
European residents are also finding it difficult to plan their own summer vacations. Sarah Ferguson, who moved to Amsterdam from South Florida in April 2021 with her husband and four sons, has yet to return to the US with her family because the cost of six plane tickets is too high.
But traveling around Europe—a major initial motivation for the family's move abroad—was becoming increasingly expensive. Train tickets, a mode of transport that Ferguson and her husband favored, were often more costly than plane tickets.
Therefore, the family shifted their summer vacation towards road trip adventures. Ferguson rented two Toyota Corollas for a 15-hour drive in August to a campsite in Croatia, which they had visited last year and where they would be staying in a beachfront villa around this time. “We did the drive last year and it was beautiful,” she said.
Pola Henderson, who holds both American and Polish citizenship, has lived in Paris for seven years, which has also changed the way she travels around Europe.
Henderson, a content writer and travel blogger, typically takes one or two weekend trips to different countries each month. But this summer, she'll be traveling closer to home, with weekend trips around France and exploring Paris itself more.
Some places in Europe have seen crowds right from the start of summer. (Photo: CNN)
Time will tell whether travelers will be further disappointed by the chaos of flight cancellations, delays, and other disruptions of last season.
So far, a number of glitches have emerged, including ongoing protests in Paris, union and cast member strikes at Disneyland Paris in early June, and passport scanner malfunctions that caused congestion at Heathrow and other UK airports during the May holiday weekend.
However, the prevailing mood among many tourists seems to be a blend of excitement and a "carpe diem" (enjoying the present) attitude, even in the most crowded places.
