Mondial Assistance is unveiling the preferred 2008 summer destinations for Europeans travelling by plane. This ranking is based on an analysis of over 418,000 travel insurance contracts subscribed to, up until May 15th 2008. These contracts were exclusively booked on the websites of European airline companies, clients of Mondial Assistance, for flights scheduled between June 15th and September 15th 2008.

Europeans travelling by plane choose Spain as their favourite destination
For 25.3% of planned flights, Spain is the favourite destination, followed by Italy (14.1%), the U.K. (13.8%), France (9.4%), Ireland (4.6%) and Portugal (4.3%). Although France remains the leading tourist destination in the world, it only appears among the top 3 preferred destinations for the French, the Portuguese, the Swiss and the British.

• The French prefer France and Southern Europe: the first three leading destinations from France are: France (21.1%), Spain (11.2%) and Italy (9.5%)
• The Germans will sunbathe in Southern Europe. 28.3% prefer Spain, 13.3% choose Italy, and only 9.5% will fly to the U.K.
• Convinced Spanish lovers, 31.7% of British vacationers will fly to Spain, 14.1% will remain in the U.K and 10.2% will spend their holidays in France.
• The Italians love their country, and 29.2% of them will visit a part of Italy by plane. Although Spain attracts 23.4% of vacationing Italians, 14.9% will spend their holidays in the U.K.
• Champions at staying-at-home, more than one third (35.8%) of all Spanish vacationers will remain in Spain, 16.9% will travel to the U.K. and 14% to Italy.
• The Irish love Spain (21.1%) and also Poland (19.2%) and the United States (8.9%).
• The Dutch will visit Spain (26.8%), Italy (18.8%) and the U.K. (9.1%).
• The Polish for the most part will travel to the U.K. (37.5%), Ireland (22.1%) and Italy (14.6%).
• As for the Portuguese, they appreciate the U.K. (25.9%), Spain (17.2%) and France (15.3%).
• The Swedish head straight to Italy (26.3%), the U.K. (24.7%) and Spain (18.6%)
• And finally, the Swiss prefer Spain (33.1%), France (12.4%) and Italy (11.6%).

10 days is the average holiday

Europeans who will travel by plane this summer will leave for an average of ten days. The Polish (13.8 days), the French (13 days), the Dutch (11.9 days), the Germans and the Irish (11 days) leave for a bit longer than the average vacationer. On the contrary, the Swedes (8 days), the British (8.3 days), the Portuguese and the Spanish (9 days), the Italians and the Swiss (10 days) take shorter holidays than the average European vacationer.

“e-Magin, our e-commerce platform, is so successful with the airline companies that today we have a unique point of view on air travel in Europe and throughout the world,” declares Erick Morazin, International Sales Director at Mondial Assistance. “As a result we can follow the most frequent destinations, booking behaviours, holiday durations, and numerous other information about air travel in real time.”