To understand trends in luxury travel to Western European cities, Mavens analysed four years of search data from the UK related to luxury hotels and accommodation in over 60 cities, to identify the top destinations, the fastest growing ones, and seasonality patterns.

Since 2014, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome and Dublin have consistently been the top five Western European destinations with the highest search interest for luxury travel from the UK. But beyond that top five, there is a fast-changing landscape of risers and fallers. Berlin and Prague have gained the most places in the top 10 league table, whilst Copenhagen, Lisbon and Budapest have lost ground since last year.

Perhaps the most interesting shift in behaviour is that the top 10 cities account for a decreasing share of total luxury travel search to Western European cities. Their share was 47% in 2014, but dropped to 31% in 2017, suggesting that British luxury travellers are seeking alternative places to go, and that other cities are increasingly perceived as desirable luxury destinations. The top cities driving this shift are Milan, Vienna and Porto which have seen on average a three-fold growth in search interest for luxury travel since 2014.

Paris’ popularity dips after terror attacks

Paris has been the number one city for outbound luxury travel from the UK since 2014, judging by search interest. However, the negative impact of the November 2015 terror attacks is clearly illustrated by the drop in online search volume, with signs of recovery only just beginning to show.

Although Paris remained number one overall in 2016, it was temporarily overtaken by Amsterdam and Barcelona and only began recovering its lead in Q3 2017. Safety concerns also affected other top luxury break cities, such as Barcelona, and this may have contributed to luxury travellers branching out to other smaller cities.

So far, safety concerns seem to have been the only factor with a considerable impact on the top cities’ popularity, seasonality aside. It will be interesting to see how Amsterdam’s ‘hotels freeze’ policy, introduced in January 2017, will impact its position in the years to come. Whilst higher room rates might not deter the more affluent traveller groups, they could be put off if the freeze causes a lack of new and trendy hotel openings (although there is a low risk of that as the city has said that exceptions could be made for innovative hotel concepts).

Targeting the right cities at the right time of year

Every year, UK search volume for luxury stays peaks in January, with smaller peaks in March, May, July and October. However, the relevance of each destination varies considerably for each peak, with strong implications for how brands in the luxury travel space can best allocate marketing budgets.

Dublin, Berlin and Prague are particularly popular for luxury travel search in October, drawing visitors in with Christmas markets and wintery festivities. Meanwhile, luxury travel search in March sees more interest in warmer-climate cities like Barcelona, Lisbon or Madrid in preparation for spring or summer breaks.

For more information and full details of the study, please contact our consultants at travel@mavens.co.uk

This study by Mavens analysed over 3 million searches from the UK between 2014 and 2017 for luxury hotels and accommodation in 64 Western European cities. Understanding this consumer interest can help brands optimise copy by mimicking the target audience's natural language. It can also help increase returns from organic search, tailor media-buying to seasonality, and identify trends.