Scottish cities among Europeans' favourite holiday destination for August 2022

Four Scottish cities have been named among the most popular UK holiday destinations for August.

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen are all included in the top 12 search destinations throughout the continent.

The capital was the second most wanted city in the UK for Germans, Spanish, French, Italians and Dutch tourists and the third for Portuguese.

Scotland’s biggest city was also in high demand, with Glasgow ranking third in the UK for Spanish and Italians, fourth for Germans and French, and sixth most popular destination for Dutch and Portuguese.

Inverness is the third most popular city in the country and has been the ninth most searched in the UK by Germans, Spanish and French, tenth by Dutch and eleventh by Italians.

Finally, Aberdeen makes the top 12 for the French.

The figures were released by Jetcost UK who regularly analyses the searches done through its website.

The data is the results of flight searches for the month of August 2022, and indicate that a large majority of tourists have opted for Scotland.

Ignazio Ciarmoli, Jetcost’s Marketing Director, said: “Normality is here and with it comes the millions of tourists who visited Scotland every summer before the pandemic.

“Scottish´s cities remain major global tourist destinations, with their cultural richness, attractions, coastline and landscapes, popular traditions, castles, churches and monuments, and good hotels and infrastructures continuing to attract a big number of tourists, and especially Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen which are among the favourite destinations for Europeans.

“Moreover, many Britons have also chosen these cities for their holidays”.

According to www.jetcost.co.uk searches for flights to the UK have increased by 250%, while those for hotels have increased by 330% in the first seven months of 2022.

Searches for August holidays are already 30% above those for the same month in 2019.

Scotland is not only one Europeans’ favourite holiday destination, but also for the British, Edinburgh ranks ninth in terms of worldwide searches and Glasgow 21st.

The sun, beach and sea destinations in Spain are among the preferences of the British for their days of leisure in August, Alicante occupies the second position, Malaga the third, Barcelona the fourth, followed by Palma de Mallorca (12), Tenerife (17), Ibiza (22) and Lanzarote (25).

On the other hand, the capitals and large cities of the main European countries are other top destinations on the list, Amsterdam (5), Faro (6), Dublin (8), Lisbon (13) Paris (14), Athens (15), Rome (16). Those who searched long-haul destinations have chosen Bangkok (18th), Dubai (19th) and Cairo (23rd).