France is the reservoir of Airbnb travellers in Europe. Last year, according to Airbnb, 8.5Mn French people used the platform to travel across Europe throughout the summer – so how will things change?
Based on our estimation, France was the largest exporter in Europe, being the first source of international travellers for Spain and Portugal and the second for Greece and Italy (behind the USA).
The following matrix shows the number of guests per country of origin and destination:
Interestingly, France is also the country where the largest share of travellers stayed domestically. 57% of French Airbnb users found a place in France last summer, while only 22% of Germans found their destination in their own country.
So assuming that a fraction of the international travellers from last year are still able to travel for holidays this summer, the question is: where are they going to go? Our guess is that they will most likely turn towards domestic destinations, particularly in non urban areas. Looking at France, these are the options that French travellers will have:
In red are regions that are closed due to COVID-19 at the moment, while green represents regions that have already re-opened. The x axis shows the number of non urban properties, and the y axis shows the number of Airbnb travellers who chose these destinations last summer.
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur seems to be the region with the greatest supply for French travellers, while having relatively low potential for local demand.
The following charts show the % of travellers in France who will have to re-invent their travel plans given this year’s mobility limitation – French people are forbidden to travel beyond 100km of their home :
Finally, France just started to re-open and reservations are still much lower compared with the same time last year, but domestic and rural travel seem to be the best options this year. We will continue monitoring these trends and keep you updated.
Read more about our data in LeMonde recent article here.