Forget Summer. This Is Travel’s New “It” Season
Michelle Baran, AFAR
August 24, 2023 - Full Article
AFAR — Shoulder season is generally considered to be the period of travel between the peak summer and low winter seasons—and it is rapidly becoming one of the most attractive times to travel. That is due in part to the fact that surging crowds and increasing weather woes are making summer and winter travel, well, kind of miserable. Add to the allure the fact that airfares and hotel rates are typically lower with better availability during the fall and spring shoulder seasons, and this in-between travel period is now more enticing than it has ever been before.
“We’re seeing that the ideas of ‘shoulder season’ and ‘off-season’ are changing postpandemic due to pent-up travel demand, which has not slowed down,” says Michael Schottey, spokesperson for the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA). “Obviously, there will be a decrease compared to peak travel season as children go back to school and summer vacations come to a close, but all of our information points toward popular destinations and suppliers continuing to be very busy right through what used to be considered a ‘slow time’ of the year.”
The number of Americans traveling to Europe surged this summer in a postpandemic fervor for international adventures, and the demand pushed transatlantic airfares to the highest they had been in more than five years, according to travel booking site Hopper’s 2023 Summer Travel to Europe report. Round-trip flights from the U.S to Europe averaged more than $1,200 this summer, or about $300 above 2022 prices (and 23 percent higher than in 2019). And once U.S. travelers arrived in Europe having forked over for those sky-high airfares, they were greeted by record-breaking heatwaves across much of southern Europe in destinations such as Spain, Italy, and Greece, as climate change brings with it the humbling realities of a summer season now defined by stifling temperatures and increasingly unpredictable—sometimes dangerous—weather patterns.
When it comes to travelers looking more toward the shoulder season, “Sadly, weather will soon be [more of] a deciding factor. Just look at Europe these past two summers with record heat,” says Tania Swasbrook, vice president of Travelworld International Group, a luxury Virtuoso travel agency. Swasbrook notes that for the high-end, discerning travelers she works with, the crowds have become one of the biggest deterrents of peak-season travel, with more attractive pricing and greater availability of accommodations and services also motivating clients to “think more ‘outside the box’” in terms of where they go and when.