Tourism, the trend destinations of the summer: Tokyo in the lead. In Italy, Alghero comes out on top
Mastercard report measures the increase in flight bookings between June and September compared to the previous year
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Key points
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Japan continues to be one of the most popular destinations after the gradual recovery of air routes following the Covid-19 pandemic: the number of foreign visitors exceeded 36.87 million for the first time in 2024 and the record could be broken this year. A trend facilitated by the weakness of the yen that is confirmed by forecasts for the summer: the Travel Trends Report 2025 of the Mastercard Economics Institute indicates Tokyo as the global destination with the largest increase in its share of flight bookings between June and September compared to the same period in 2024. The Japanese capital is followed by another Japanese city, Osaka. In third placeParis.
Europeans' favourite destinations
.The result changes but little when looking at European travellers alone: Tokyo (the most visited urban centre in the world in 2024, a position held for a decade by Bangkok) remains the most popular destination, followed by the beaches of Palma de Mallorca and Hurghada in Egypt (in the Red Sea). In fourth place is Paris and in fifth is Osaka.
The climbing of Alghero
.In the European travel market, Alghero stands out: the town on Sardinia's west coast (not far from one of the island's most sought-after beaches, La Pelosa di Stintino) ranks 12th in terms of summer bookings growth compared to last year, just below Sharm el-Sheikh. And better than the Spanish Girona and Malaga.
Milan and Rome between the Middle East and the USA
To find Italy again in the top positions, one has to consult the bookings of Middle Eastern travellers: Milan is seventh, Rome ninth. The Italian capital remains very popular with American tourists, reaching sixth place.
The case of Tirana pushed by the Italians
There is another popularity gauge offered by the report: the change in flight bookings for each destination between 2019 and 2024 using Oag data. Again, Japan comes back, as the biggest increases are those of Tokyo (first) and Osaka (third) with Jedda (Saudi Arabia) gaining the middle position. Large investments in tourism and leisure infrastructure development are making the Saudi kingdom the emerging leisure destination.
