Global battle for international tourists

The global recession, which has led to an increasing trend for staycations, has meant that the battle for lucrative tourists’ spend is even more intense than ever before.

With such challenging economic conditions, tourist boards need to fight for every visitor using their arsenal of attractions, whether that be the promise of value or a unique experience only available at their location.

Cheap flights comparison site Skyscanner, reveals which nations are proving most successful in tempting tourists away from their staycations and on to international vacations.

Analysing flight search patterns of almost 10 million monthly users, Skyscanner can reveal that flights to Spain ranked number one as the most searched for country overall. The Iberian nation was the most popular holiday destination globally, receiving the most interest from Skyscanner users across all markets.

In second place was the UK itself, followed by the US, Italy, Germany and France. Turkey narrowly outranked rival Greece; Portugal was the ninth most popular while Poland came in at number 10, outranking many better known tourist destinations.

Barry Smith, Skyscanner co-founder and business director commented: “The UNWTO re­ports that international tourist arrivals have increased after last year’s downturn, with varied but positive growth in all world regions.

“Skyscanner is particularly strong in the UK and European markets and our data reflects this, so it’s perhaps not surprising that Spain ranks so highly. Nevertheless, with visitors from 233 countries and territories, we can give a very good indication of which destinations are the most popular with global travellers.”

Most searched for countries by global Skyscanner users: 1. Spain, 2. UK, 3. US, 4. Italy, 5. Germany, 6. France, 7. Turkey, 8. Greece, 9. Portugal and 10. Poland.