More people needed help on holiday
An increase of almost 15 percent. This is what SOS International looks back on when the summer's travel claims are calculated. The alarm centre for travel assistance has processed a total of approximately 30,000 cases during the summer peak season.
More Nordic travellers needed help from SOS International during the summer holidays this year (1 June to 18 August) compared to before.
- Our figures confirm the trend we also see at tour operators and airports. Travel activity is increasing, and Covid-19 is a thing of the past when it comes to travel, says Karin Tranberg, EVP, Travelcare, SOS International.
After the heat waves and wildfires in southern Europe in recent years, SOS International is keeping a close eye on whether the travel patterns of Nordic citizens change in relation to travel times and destinations.
But in contrast to travel during the winter season, where changes in travel patterns can be detected, it seems that there is broad Nordic agreement that the summer holiday should be in July, and the destination is usually Spain, Turkey and Greece.
Here's where Nordic travellers most often needed help during the summer holiday:
- Spain
- Turkey
- Greece
- Italy
- Cyprus
Old favorites and new destinations
There are different preferences for holiday destinations among Danes, Norwegians, Swedes and Finns:
Spain is the largest country of injury for both Swedes and Norwegians, while Greece is at the top among the Finnish cases, and the Danes' most frequent country of injury is Turkey.
If you look at countries that are not among the most frequent claims countries, but where there is a relatively large increase in the number of claims in the past year, you will find countries such as Albania, Japan and Thailand. Also, SOS International can track an increase in travel claims in Finland.
A classic holiday scourge on the rise
SOS International has experienced a significant increase in cases involving stomach infections. In the summer of 2024, 16 percent of all cases were about stomach infections.
In the summer of 2023, stomach infections accounted for 11 percent of the cases.
- We have seen major outbreaks of stomach infections in some of the major tourist destinations over the summer, and this is also reflected in our data, says Karin Tranberg.
In addition to stomach infections, ear infections (often in children who bathe a lot), sunburns and accidents where you injure your feet or ankles are frequent summer holiday injuries.
Major events that have disrupted travel activity in the summer season 2024:
- As in 2023, this year there have been outbreaks of heat waves and wildfires in southern Europe. However, this has not resulted in any significant number of contacts to SOS International's alarm centre for travel assistance.
- SOS International, like many others, was affected by the Crowdstrike outage on Friday in week 29. Back-up procedures ensured that you could call the alarm centre, and we were able to process cases. But since many of our suppliers and partners were affected, and the breakdown happened during the absolute high season, it caused a little extra busyness and waiting time.
- In addition, the summer has seen a closed airport in Sicily due to volcanic eruptions, and there have been cancelled flights at the airports in Frankfurt and Cologne due to climate activists' actions on runways. These events have not given rise to significantly prolonged case processing.
