European Tourism Turns a Corner Towards a Strong Recovery: New Skift Recovery Index

The Skift Recovery Index continued its upward journey in May, with the global average score hitting the 60 percent mark. This number indicates that the overall travel performance of May stands at 60 percent of the pre-pandemic performance in May 2019.

Last month was especially a turning point for Europe, which since the end of the summer season last year has been at the bottom of the pile in terms of recovery.

Many European Union countries reopened their borders to visitors from within the block, and on May 19, the EU also announced an easing of travel restrictions for non-EU visitors.

With case numbers declining rapidly in most EU countries, major European destinations hope they can attract U.S. travelers, although the booking window for the summer holidays is closing rapidly.

More country-specific data can be found on our Skift Recovery Index dashboard.

When looking at the monthly average number of new daily cases, for example, we can see that most countries are now in the “green zone,” highlighting that things are going in the right direction.

Above view looks at the average performance over 2021, in which India, Argentina, and Brazil have been in the red zone with growing case numbers and an average decline in travel scores.

Thailand has seen cases increase, but on average had seen its travel recovery score increase in 2021. When we just look at the last month, however, this picture changes (below). The differences between the 2021 average and the last month-over-month visualization are telling about the current situation.

Here, Thailand and South Africa are showing a worrying trend, with also Singapore and Japan moving into the red zone. Russia and Indonesia are also edging towards the red zone. Likely on the back of a weakening performance in most Asian countries, Australia and China also saw a dip in travel performance, despite not seeing an increase in case numbers.

Argentina, which still has rising case numbers actually saw a rise in its travel score. The UK, which saw its travel score grow significantly, has seen the strong case number declines of the previous months stall in May, and if this trend continues will likely move closer to the red zone next month. All other European countries moved deeper into the green zone, with case numbers falling and travel scores increasing.