Baby boomers and first-time travelers seem like driving a so-called “coolcations” trend, shunning Europe’s peak summer hotspots in favor of cooler climes — comparable to the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Extreme summer heat, combined with cost and overcrowding concerns, are affecting where people decide to go on vacation.
For some, the appeal of booking a visit to Mediterranean destinations like Italy, Greece and Spain in July and August has lost its shine.
As a substitute, a growing wave of holidaymakers appears to be prioritizing summer trips to northern Europe to flee the blistering heat.
“For those who return to post-pandemic, 2022 and even into the summer of 2023, we saw southern Europe just be rife with popularity,” Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton told CNBC over video call.
“It felt like everyone just had to return to the Mediterranean, to Italy, to Greece, to Spain, because they hadn’t had the chance for a few years to find a way to do this. What happened was, it was crowded, it was often expensive, and also you were seeing various natural challenges occur — often in consequence of climate change,” Thornton said.
“What we now have seen in reverse is in 2024 and now into 2025, the demand for people wanting to travel in the height of summer, in July and August, to what would traditionally be cooler northern European destinations,” he added.
The secluded bay of Kvalvika on the Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway within the Norwegian Sea.
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For its U.K. customers, Thornton said Intrepid Travel had seen a 50% increase in travel bookings to Iceland, Estonia and Scandinavia for the July-August period, while bookings to southern Europe shifted to shoulder seasons.
Intrepid Travel’s bookings to Italy in April through June and September-October jumped 16%, while Greece bookings over the identical respective periods rose by 37%.
Bookings to southern Europe for July-August, nonetheless, were down 15%, Thornton said, adding that he expects this trend to persist in the approaching years.
“The times of the summer holiday to southern Europe seem as in the event that they may be numbered,” Thornton said.
‘A conscious decision’
Notably, the 2 biggest drivers of this 12 months’s coolcation trend were baby boomers — born between 1946 and 1964 — and first-time travelers aged 18 to 35-years-old, Intrepid Travel’s Thornton said.
“The expansion could be very much coming from baby boomers of their 50s and 60s. So, kids have left home, mortgage is paid off, more free time to exit and see the world and maybe less affected by cost-of-living pressures,” Thornton said.
“The second group is definitely at the alternative end of the dimensions, which is first-time travelers. So, for these people, they’re young of their profession, often driven by experiences over possessions and the fact of home ownership … is less relevant or possibly less achievable.”
A firefighter gestures as he coordinates the fight against a wildfire in Grammatikos region in Attica on August 12, 2024.
Aris Oikonomou | Afp | Getty Images
Rome, Barcelona and Athens typically feature amongst Europe’s hottest summer destinations. But sweltering conditions in southern Europe have hit the summer travel season hard.
Last 12 months, Europe endured its warmest summer on record, and campaigners have warned that record-breaking heat in March could fuel the conditions for harsher heat waves and wildfires over the approaching months.
Jenny Southan, CEO of Globetrender, the world’s leading travel trend forecasting agency, said she expects the coolcation trend to accentuate as the results of climate change worsen and change into more unpredictable.
“The trend for ‘coolcations’ reflects a conscious decision by a growing portion of consumers to avoid essentially the most intense summer heat and wildfires which can be occurring in certain parts of the world on an annual basis,” Southan told CNBC.
“Fairly than shun hotspots within the Med completely, for instance, they’re travelling in spring and autumn, whereas in July and August, they go for places comparable to Norway and Finland which can be more temperate,” she added.
Who’re the winners of this trend?
For northern European countries comparable to Sweden and Estonia, the burgeoning coolcations trend represents an economic opportunity.
A spokesperson on the marketing firm Visit Sweden said that, while coolcations may be considered “a brand new driving force,” it stays difficult to say whether or not they are the first reason for any upswing in tourism.
“There are numerous driving forces in play when deciding on holiday type and holiday destination. We do not have exact numbers on the scale of the trend or where they arrive from. The trend, if it continues, remains to be at an early stage,” Visit Sweden said.
The sun isn’t any longer a thing to worship.
Jenny Southan
CEO of Globetrender
For its part, Estonia’s Tourist Board said it “actually welcomes” a growing desire amongst holidaymakers to pursue cooler climes.
“We see this as more of a long-term trend, as other aspects in addition to temperature are also more likely to affect consumer behavior, comparable to overtourism in some popular resorts and the growing desire to flee to more peaceful locations and reconnect with nature,” Anneli Lepp, director of Estonia’s Tourist Board, told CNBC.
Lepp said she doesn’t expect to see a mass movement of travelers searching for a standard sunbathing beach vacation to book a visit to Estonia, noting that the Baltic country “tends to draw those searching for more lively, climbing and outdoor adventurers.”
Deserted wood jetty on a sunny day within the province of Smaland in Sweden.
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Globetrender’s Southan said that one among the advantages of travelers searching for milder temperatures during peak summer might be putting a stop to overcrowding in places which have previously been inundated by tourists.
“It’s going to be a probability to reset and for economies to rebalance their 12 months in order that they are not working nonstop for 4 months (as they do in Ibiza and on many Greek Islands, for instance). As a substitute, they are going to find ways to draw travellers all year long, providing a more sustainable source of income and putting less pressure on infrastructure,” Southan said.
In years to come back, Southan said most individuals will seek to go away places they live when it gets too hot, noting there are ares in Italy which have demonstrated this behavior for many years.
“The sun isn’t any longer a thing to worship,” Southan said.
