More Americans Planned To Fly to Italy in January 2023 Than the Rest of the Year

More Americans planned to travel to Italy in January 2023 than any other month in the year, according to data from Google. The typical search trends see a surge in searches for trips abroad from December to January, with a roughly 50% spike compared to December figures. The summer months then tend to overshadow this period as the peak season for travel, which is what happened throughout 2022 where summer searches ultimately outpaced January’s boom.

But in 2023, searches for flights to Italy defied the usual pattern. No other month, including the peak summer months, eclipsed January’s surge. The volume of searches for flights to Italy in January was 79% higher than in December 2022, making it the peak month for this search for the entire year. Even when compared to the second-highest month, May, January maintained a 12% lead.

This unusual peak in January 2023 was consistent for other European destination flight searches, as well, suggesting a potential shift in travel planning preferences. “The Google trends were consistent with the time of year people booked their trips with us. We tend to have a boom of package tour bookings in January”, said Tourist Italy‘s founder, Ben Julius.

From our early findings of 2024 searches and bookings, the trend seems to be continuing, with a huge jump from December 2023 to January 2024 searches for Italy travel. We’ll have to wait and see what happens this summer to make a definitive conclusion about when Americans plan to fly to Italy.

No matter the month, we have a handy guide for everything you need to know about how to plan a trip to Italy.