Opodo searches show rising demand for long-haul

Top four places are taken by Orlando, New York, Bangkok and Dubai

Opodo has reported increasing demand for long-haul destinations next year as the red list has been cut and international borders are opening up.

It found that the top 10 booking destinations for during 2021 were all short-haul – but six out of its top 10 search destinations for travel in 2022 are long-haul.

The top four places are taken by Orlando, New York, Bangkok and Dubai, with Sydney and Tokyo in seventh and eighth places respectively.

For 2021, Dublin, Barcelona and Lisbon were the most popular destinations for British respondents, followed by Alicante, Bucharest, Malaga, Faro and Palma de Mallorca.

Pablo Caspers, chief travel officer of Opodo’s parent eDreams Odigeo, said: “Since the beginning of 2021 we have seen that the desire to travel has never disappeared – search data shows our customers have continued to dream and plan ahead despite travel restrictions.

“Bookings continued to increase as vaccination programmes progressed, and today, we have really encouraging figures.

“From June to August our figures have been above pre-Covid levels and during our Prime days in October we experienced record bookings.

“The situation is improving every day, and we are emerging from this challenging period stronger than ever.”

The figures were collated utilising flight booking data from the company’s online travel agency brands: eDreams, Opodo, Go Voyages and Travellink.