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Istanbul to Become a Popular Destination in Q3 2019

It looks like Istanbul hotels are going to get extra profit in the third quarter of 2019. According to the study performed by ForwardKeys to European Cities Marketing, Istanbul will be among the most popular destinations in Europe for the period from July 1st to September 30th. This information is based on the analysis of more than 17 million flight booking transactions.

Based on this information, the company has prepared Air Travelers’ Traffic Barometer. ForwardKeys took into consideration both long-haul bookings and seat capacity as they allow quite a precise prediction of future visits. The total number of seats in airplanes to Europe on sale is more than 262 million in the third quarter of 2019. This result is 3.8% higher than a year ago (Q3 2018).

As of June 2nd, Istanbul shows one of the biggest growths in capacity – more than 10.0%. The current share of the market is 5.5% for the capital of Turkey. Forward bookings also show a significant increase – more than 11% ahead of the 2018 result. Experts name several reasons for this popularity, including the newly opened Istanbul Airport and fewer worries about the potential safety of traveling to the country.

Budapest hotels may also get a hot Q3 2019. The city shows tremendous results of +10% in capacity and 5.9% higher forward bookings. Among other strong performers, it is important to mention Valencia (+8.5% in capacity and +15.6% in forward bookings) and Dubrovnik (+8.4% in capacity and +16.2% in forward bookings). In terms of the popularity growth, there are cities that perform better than Istanbul. These are Seville and Vienna that have a capacity increase of 16.7% and 12.6% respectively. However, these cities have a much less share of total seats booked – Vienna’s share is 3.9%, and Seville’s share is only 0.4%.

In the list of best performers in terms of capacity growth, there are also Munich (+6.0% in capacity and the share is 4.3%) and Lisbon (+7.8% in capacity and the share is 2.7%). In terms of long-haul bookings, Dubrovnik and Valencia are on top of the list with increases of 16.2% and 15.6% respectively. Barcelona has a smaller increase of 13.8%, but the city’s share is really impressive – 8.1%. It looks like many travelers are planning to visit the capital of Spain, Madrid, as well. Judging on flight bookings, the city has a share of 7.4%, and bookings are 7.0% higher than a year ago. Experts also underline that some destinations like Vienna and Budapest are pumped because of a growing number of low-cost flights by young companies. At the same time, such destinations as Munich, Prague, and Lisbon get better results thanks to legacy carriers.

23.06.2019

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