Holidays abroad during the autumn holidays
Only a fraction of Norwegians have chosen to travel abroad during the pandemic.
According to Statistics Norway In the second quarter of 2019, a total of 1.28 million Norwegians traveled abroad.
In the second quarter of 2021, “only” 100,000 would be raised by the country.
Marie-Anne Zachrisson, country manager at Ving, says they are finally starting to get a major change.
Last week was Ving’s best sales week since the pandemic broke out.
– We have long waits for the ketchup effect, and it is fantastic to see that many people finally book the holidays they dream of, says Zachrisson.
But it is still a long way back to the 2019 level.
Many want to leave the country during the autumn holidays
Like Ving, the travel agency TUI has noticed that more people want to travel abroad again.
– The desire to travel is present and there are more and more that we could see and holiday this winter. This is a particularly positive trend for the next three months’ years – October, November and December, says Nora Aspengren in TUI to NRK.
The autumn holidays at school also lead to more bookings.
– Some departures have skyrocketed and have almost tripled sales in recent weeks. Travel with departure during the autumn holidays is absolutely most popular, says Aspengren.
The same merchant Zachrisson in Ving.
– The autumn holidays look good, then we increase the number of flights to the Mediterranean. Here there is only a little space left.
Order sent
But even though the trend for the travel companies is positive, there is still a lot that she can stay after a long pandemic.
– The booking pattern we see now is typical of the trends we have set during the pandemic. Very many customers can be on their way to departure, and it is absolutely most adults who travel without a child who book now, says Nora Aspengren to NRK and adds:
– Many are still a bit hesitant, and we have unfortunately had to postpone the winter start-up from some of our regional airports.
She acknowledges that they are not close to a normal travel year in total. The same is said by Per Arne Villadsen, CEO of the travel agency Berg-Hansen
– There is still a good deal of skepticism associated with foreign travel. Our impression is that as many as possible expose as challenging as there is uncertainty, he says to NRK.
However, he shows that he has godly faith in the future.
– For 18 months, people have been told to stay at home. So the challenge we get to hear that it goes well to travel, I think the number of travelers will go up sharply. The desire to travel is there, probably higher than before. It’s about turning to the new everyday life.
Great faith in the summer of 2022
The director of Berg-Hansen goes on to say whether the uncertainty is mainly related to crossing borders. The planes in Norway are becoming more and more crowded.
He thinks this will spread abroad.
– We are very optimistic about travel in 2022. Both with business, group and private travel.
Avinor keeps statistics on how many flights go abroad from Norway. Below shows trips out of the country in July and August the last three years.
Marie-Anne Zachrisson in Ving also believes 2022 will be a good year for travel enthusiasts and travel agencies.
– The next summer season looks promising, many of our customers who had their holiday introduced due to travel advice this year, have rebooked for next summer, she says.
Her colleague, Svein Erik Bjørheim, says travel to city holidays has started to pick up again. Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Krakow are the cities most people book city trips to right now at Ving.
– Last week, we sold more than twice as many city trips as we did throughout August, says Bjørheim, head of Ving’s scheduled flights department.
– Many have thought that weekend trips to big cities are a type of holiday we could expect a challenge for people to start booking again, so we are happy to see that the desire is back already.