When it comes to summer travel, a strong dollar and cheaper airline tickets are overpowering terrorism fears.
Travel agencies say they expect a very strong summer travel season, with bookings already filling up at top spots in popular destinations. Many of the best luxury rooms are already booked on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, according to Virtuoso, a network of travel agencies.
As of Wednesday, the only options left at the high-end Santa Caterina hotel for July 9 to 16 on Expedia, for example, were suites starting at a steep $2,165 per night. Five other luxury hotels there are completely sold out for those dates, according to Expedia.
Paris tourism, hit hard by the November attacks, has rebounded significantly, agents say, though bookings for trips into France this year have been down about 7%, according to Travelport, which runs reservation systems for hotels and airlines. The Brussels bombings have also had limited impact, mostly because Brussels is a destination for business, not leisure.
“We’re kind of learning to live with this now. The traveler is much more resilient these days” in the face of attacks and diseases such as the Zika virus, says David Scowsill, chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, a London-based group of travel company leaders.
Read more: Despite Terrorism Scares, Summer Tourists Still Plan European Trips - WSJ
Travel agencies say they expect a very strong summer travel season, with bookings already filling up at top spots in popular destinations. Many of the best luxury rooms are already booked on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, according to Virtuoso, a network of travel agencies.
As of Wednesday, the only options left at the high-end Santa Caterina hotel for July 9 to 16 on Expedia, for example, were suites starting at a steep $2,165 per night. Five other luxury hotels there are completely sold out for those dates, according to Expedia.
Paris tourism, hit hard by the November attacks, has rebounded significantly, agents say, though bookings for trips into France this year have been down about 7%, according to Travelport, which runs reservation systems for hotels and airlines. The Brussels bombings have also had limited impact, mostly because Brussels is a destination for business, not leisure.
“We’re kind of learning to live with this now. The traveler is much more resilient these days” in the face of attacks and diseases such as the Zika virus, says David Scowsill, chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, a London-based group of travel company leaders.
Read more: Despite Terrorism Scares, Summer Tourists Still Plan European Trips - WSJ
