Everything skyrocketed
Not since the 1970s has Steve Perillo, CEO and owner of New Jersey-based Perillo Tours, seen such a surge in tourists booking trips to Europe.
Steve Perillo said custom trips to Italy typically sell at about 80% capacity in a year. So far in 2023, about 96% of Perillo Tours’ 500 annual departures, which include Spain and Greece as destinations, are booked, with the company expecting to reach 100% within weeks before it begins marketing for 2024.
Over the past few weeks, many European hubs have been flooded with tourists, and sold-out hotels, packed museums and overcrowded restaurants have become increasingly common, especially in popular cities like Barcelona, Rome and Paris.
The number of Americans traveling to Europe this summer is expected to increase by 55% compared to last year, and by 600% compared to 2021, according to travel insurance provider Allianz Partners. London, Paris and Dublin top the list of the 10 most popular destinations in 2023, according to Allianz's annual review; Rome, Reykjavik, Amsterdam and Lisbon also make the top 10.
The European Travel Commission (ETC) also forecasts strong demand for European holidays in 2023, with almost half of destinations on the continent expected to return to more than 80% of 2019 figures.
Of course, all that demand has sent prices soaring. According to flight-tracking site Hopper, airfares to Europe are at their highest point in five years. Round-trip tickets to the continent now average more than $1,200, according to a company spokesperson, about $300 more than they would cost in 2022 and up 26% 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 the most in 2023. Paris (up 10% year-on-year), Stockholm (9%) and Dublin (8.5%) are among the destinations AEGBT predicts will see the highest increases.
Meanwhile, in other destinations across the continent, popular shows like HBO’s “The White Lotus” and Netflix’s “Emily in Paris” have also attracted plenty of snappers. According to data from Expedia, flight searches to cities in Sicily (the idyllic island where the second season of “The White Lotus” was filmed) have skyrocketed by triple digits this summer, with searches to Messina up 335% and Palermo up 180%.
Tourists visiting Europe's top holiday destinations may have to brave crowds this summer. Photo: CNN
Jenn Rice, a journalist and branding 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 “spilling out into the streets like it was Mardi Gras.”
In Paris, Arnaud Morandi, general manager of Fauchon L'Hôtel Paris, a 54-room, five-star boutique hotel, said travelers hoping to secure last-minute tickets to events like the French Open, which is currently underway, major concerts, or reservations at in-demand restaurants will temper expectations.
Flexible plan adjustment
Faced with record crowds and higher costs this summer, many travellers to Europe have been forced to adjust their plans. Many are relying on trains and ferries to avoid expensive flights, even on low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair.
Europeans are also feeling the pinch for their own vacation plans. Sarah Ferguson, who moved to Amsterdam from South Florida in April 2021 with her husband and four sons, has yet to return to the U.S. with her family because the cost of six plane tickets is too high.
But traveling around Europe—a big motivation for the family’s move abroad in the first place—has become increasingly expensive. Train tickets, a preferred mode of travel for Ferguson and her husband, are often more expensive than plane tickets.
So the family turned their summer holidays to road trip-style adventures. Ferguson rented two hybrid Toyota Corollas for a 15-hour drive in August to a camping resort in Croatia, which they visited last year and where they will stay in a beach villa this time around. “We drove it last year and it was beautiful,” she said.
Pola Henderson, a dual American and Polish citizen who has lived in Paris for seven years, has also changed the way she travels around Europe.
Henderson, a content writer and travel writer, usually takes one or two weekend trips to different countries each month. But this summer, she'll be staying closer to home, taking weekend trips around France and exploring more of Paris itself.
Some places in Europe have seen crowds since the start of summer. Photo: CNN
Time will tell whether travelers will have to endure more frustration from the chaos of flight cancellations, delays and other disruptions of last season.
There have been a number of hiccups so far, including ongoing protests in Paris, union and cast member strikes at Disneyland Paris in early June, and passport scanner issues that caused congestion at Heathrow and other UK airports over the May holiday weekend.
However, the prevailing mood among many visitors seemed to be a mix of excitement and a “carpe diem” (enjoy the present) attitude even in the most crowded places.
