Many were eagerly awaiting Wednesday's announcement that tourist travel to ten countries would be allowed again. When it finally arrived, vacation-hungry Swedes flocked to booking sites.
”We saw a significant increase in bookings,” says Annica Smith, Marketing Manager at Apollo.
The announcement from the government on Wednesday was long-awaited – by the travel industry, but also by Swedes. From June 30, it will be free to travel abroad again, not everywhere but, among other things, to popular holiday countries such as Greece and Spain.
”"As soon as it was noticed that there might be a message, we saw a lot more traffic to our site. The number of visitors increased by 120 percent," says Annica Smith, marketing manager at Apollo.
When the announcement was made at a press conference at 4 p.m., it didn't take long for the Swedes to secure their holiday trips.
”"We saw a significant increase in bookings. Interest was greatest in Greece, Croatia and Spain, and of the ten countries on the list, that's where we have our package tours this summer," says Annica Smith.
There was also great interest from competitor Tui. Bookings increased by 300 percent on Wednesday compared to the day before, says communications manager Adam Györki.
”"What stands out is that 70 percent of the bookings are to Greece. I interpret that as people being a little more uncertain about Spain," he says.
The majority of bookings are also for trips in early August, even though the announcement is already in effect from the end of June. Perhaps this is evidence of a continued uncertain global situation – or simply that it is difficult to achieve in terms of planning, says Adam Györki.
”"It's possible that you want some time. We have free rebookings, so many people will probably book further in advance and see what happens," he says.
According to Fredrik Henriksson, Head of Communications at Ving, it is too early to say how the announcement has affected the number of bookings – but at the same time, the company has seen that there is pent-up demand to be able to travel again.
”"We have already seen that there is a very high demand for being able to book trips. We had canceled trips until July 15, but now we will adapt our program and see where we can open up gradually," he says.
Apollo and Tui are also now gearing up to meet the increased demand.
”"We are sitting down today and looking at what demand looks like. We have been removing flights since March, now we are looking at what we need to add," says Adam Györki at Tui.
Apollo's first flight is on July 4th to Crete, but they are also now reviewing their programs to be able to launch more destinations quickly.
”"It will be very exciting now to see how it develops during the day," says Annica Smith.
Source: TT
