Kiwi.com: Romanians are fighting the cold by flying to warmer lands

Romanians are feeling some post-vacation blues and the weather is not on their side. And with temperatures finally dropping to chilly winter levels, Romanians are looking for ways to keep warm in the first days of the year, not by putting on a snuggly sweater, but by flying away to warmer places. Kiwi.com, a leading travel-tech company, had a look at where Romanians are going to escape the cold and found some surprising results.

As sub-zero temperatures are expected in the following days as well, bookings to warmer countries such as Italy increased by 97%, to Spain by 88.6% and to Turkey by 25.5%.

The cold at home is making Romanians look for sunnier places, with searches for travels to the Maldives increasing by 290%, to Malta 196%, Greece by 183%, to Portugal by 158%, to Spain by 118% and searches for Italy doubled at the beginning of 2024 compared to December, as did those for the United Arab Emirates.

The destination most searched by Romanians at the beginning of this year is sunny Barcelona. The most searched travel dates are January 11th and January 9th, showing that Romanians are really eager to escape the cold. And they are booking their escapes rather quickly: 28% of flights booked on Kiwi.com between this year depart less than 6 days away from the purchase date, a clear marker that Romanians are escaping the sudden cold. 74% of them will return in up to 3 days, choosing short but sweet city-breaks, while 15% will spend 4 to 6 days away.

There is also an increased interest in medium and long-haul destinations – probably so that they make sure they are safe from the cold. Some of the most booked medium-haul destinations are Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Portugal, while the Spanish islands of Las Palmas and Tenerife make an appearance on long-haul destinations too, and so do Thailand and the Maldives. In the top 10 short-haul destinations, Italy is leading, and the top also includes Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.