Is summer still the best season to go on vacation? Growing desire for off-season travel and alternative destinations due to cost, tourism and climate change

«I’ve been looking for summer all year round and suddenly here it is.» It was 1968, and Celentano didn’t sing these words by chance—he knew very well that Italians love summer and summer holidays. Almost 60 years later, nothing has changed, and the main ambition of Italians in the summer of 2025 is to travel and go on vacation. According to the European Summer Vacation Confidence Index 2025, a report by Allianz published last week, 8 out of 10 Italians plan to travel this summer. But adding a new challenge to the vacations of Europeans and Italians is climate change. An investigation by the BBC highlights how an abnormal rise in summer temperatures corresponds to a growing and systematic decrease in tourists in the usual summer destinations. In recent years, more and more tourists have questioned the sense of taking holidays in July and August in scorching places like Greece, Spain, and Italy.

Compared to 2024, according to the BBC, 8% fewer respondents say they want to spend next summer in a Mediterranean country, preferring the cooler climates of Northern Europe, and even more so preferring milder months such as spring or even the end of winter. It is reported that Greece saw a 20% increase in holiday bookings in the spring of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. In Spain as well, «foreign arrivals [...] exceeded 10 million in January and February 2025, nearly 20% more than in 2019». Furthermore, 83% of those surveyed say they want to travel to vacation destinations to spend the hottest months of the year, far exceeding the European average of around 75%. High numbers, despite a growing economic, financial, and geopolitical instability. Inflation, although it has slowed in recent months, remains the main concern for Italian travelers: 68% say they are worried about rising prices, so much so that if in 2024 the average Italian vacation cost around €1,674, in 2025 an increase of €276 is expected, for a total budget of €1,950 per person.

Figures that are increasingly significant and lead to even drastic countermeasures just to avoid giving up on holidays. In fact, 60% of respondents say they are willing to give up recreational activities such as aperitifs, dinners, and movie outings during the year, while 56% would even give up buying a house or a car just to go on vacation in the summer. Inflation, climate change, and overtourism are putting summer to the test. But as Sean Tipton of the Association of British Travel Agents, interviewed by the BBC, points out: «The beach holiday is still by far the most popular, but there is a shift in behavior and people are choosing different destinations for their vacations». Summer, therefore, resists, but transforms. The desire to travel remains, but new routes, new seasons, and new experiences are being sought. The summer holiday of the future may be less crowded, more sustainable, in non-traditional places—but still, deeply desired.