Turkey has become the big winner of the last May holiday. No less than 45 percent of all air travel booked in April were to Turkey, followed by Spain (25 percent). Although air travel was popular, the vast majority of Dutch people went looking for a holiday in their own country.

This is evident from the Zoover Holiday Monitor. Because the review and booking site attracts 30 million visitors every year and sells 15.000 package holidays from all providers, Zoover can make an accurate analysis of the search and booking behavior of holidaymakers.

Last minutes were booked more than ever for the May holiday, so only a few weeks before departure: over 50 percent. From March Zoover saw that Spain, still good for 40 percent of all bookings in the first quarter, was ousted by Turkey. After almost all corona measures had been released, a run on the May holiday started in April. Of all bookings, 45 percent were to Turkey and only 25 percent to Spain. According to director Judith Eyck of Zoover, this is special, but explainable. “Turkey has a very stable sunny and warm climate at the end of April, so the country is always a good destination for the May holidays,” she says. “In addition, prices for Turkey have decreased by over the past period 4 percent , while other trips became 11 percent more expensive on average. Spain even 25 percent.”

It was striking that during the May holidays, the Dutch spent an average of 100 euros more on a trip to Turkey than to Spain. This is because relatively more luxury 4- and 5-star resorts have been booked for Turkey and a larger share of apartments and 3-star hotels for Spain. “Travelers went for luxury, but luxury in Turkey is cheaper than in other countries,” Eyck explains. It was also striking that two-thirds of travelers flying to Turkey departed from a German airport, such as Düsseldorf or Cologne. So they were not bothered by the chaos and crowds at Schiphol.

Because of that crowds, it seemed as if everyone wanted to fly abroad, but from the Zoover Holiday monitor shows that the majority of people were looking for a holiday in the Netherlands in April and May: 18 percent. In that list of most searched destinations, France was second with 16 percent of the number of searches and Turkey just third with 16 percent. Eyck: ,,Not everyone flies to the sun during the May holiday. A large part of the people still remain in their own country. That was also very doable because of the nice weather.”

For the holidays for next summer, the normal order of ranking seems to be recovering. Spain has recently returned to the top of the list as the most popular holiday destination in the number of searches, followed by France, the Netherlands, Greece and again Turkey.