Summer 2023: Athens in Top 10 Most Searched Destinations for Travel

Athens is in the Top 10 most searched for destinations for the summer, moving up one spot compared to last year, said travel intelligence provider ForwardKeys this week.

Based on flight search data, Athens index value is now 51. Backing up the data, demand for short-term holiday rentals in the Greek capital increased in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 by 20 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019.

At the top of the most popular city list this summer is Bangkok, followed by Paris, London, Denpasar, Barcelona, New York, Lisbon, Istanbul, Madrid, Athens, Palma Mallorca, Singapore, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Rome, Manilla, and Frankfurt.

Source: ForwardKeys.

ForwardKeys assessed over 1.1 billion searches to produce the list.

Other popular cities further down on the list include Antalya, Berlin, Cancun, Cairo, Delhi, Dubai, Dublin, Ho Chi Minh City, Malaga, Marrakech, Miami, Milan, Punta Cana, San Francisco, Seoul, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Warsaw, Valetta, and Vienna.

Source: ForwardKeys.

In the list of highest climbers is Taipei, up 161 places to 56^th, followed by Hong Kong, up 129 places to 39th, Seoul, up 56 places to 35th, Tokyo, up 53 places to 13th, Hanoi, up 41 places to 76th, Auckland, up 41 places to 103rd, Melbourne, up 31 places to 75th, Ho Chi Minh City, up 30 places to 52nd, Kuala Lumpur, up 24 places to 14th and Phuket, up 24 places to 57th.

“Congratulations to Bangkok on becoming this summer’s top of the travel pops. Its popularity is a clear sign that with the reopening of the Asian markets, we are about to see the first “normal” summer since the pandemic, with 19 mainstream Asian cities listed in the top 100. The Caribbean also deserves congratulations because it has managed to maintain its popularity in the face of greater competition from numerous other destinations which are now open again,” said VP of Insights, ForwardKeys Olivier Ponti.

Meanwhile, according to ForwardKeys’ air ticketing database, compared to this time last year, summer flight bookings to beach destinations are up by 22 percent but urban destinations are up by 42 percent, nature destinations by 45 percent and shopping destinations by 53 percent.