• Travel Articles,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Croatian Holiday Bookings Rise Following Return of Game of Thrones Series

    New research has revealed that the return of the Game of Thrones series to UK televisions has led to more people searching for holidays to Croatia, where the series was filmed. Season 6 started airing on Monday, 25 April 2016, since when holiday bookings to Croatia have also seen a sharp rise. It was also revealed that specific areas, including Dubrovnik, were particularly popular holiday searches and that many people have booked a trip to these locations. The spike started some two weeks before the series became aired and has not yet slowed down.

    dubrovnikDubrovnik, Croatia.

    The popular HBO series Game of Thrones seems to have had an impressive positive impact on tourism in Croatia. The series is, in part, filmed in this country. According to UK based online travel agency Sunshine.co.uk, the number of searches and bookings for holidays in this Mediterranean country have increased significantly. The travel agency is conducting a piece of research into the travel behaviors of British holiday makers, and they are trying to uncover whether the fantastical television series and travel trends are correlated.

    In the two weeks before the next series of Game of Thrones returned, which was due to air on Monday, 25 April 2016, Sunshine noticed that some 3,100 individual searches were registered for ‘King’s Landing’ holidays. This was interesting because King’s Landing is a fictional place that only exists in the series. Part of this series was actually filmed in the Croatian medieval city of Dubrovnik.

    Not all interested holiday makers searched for King’s Landing, however. In fact, many seemed to be well aware of where the series was filmed, because searches for Dubrovnik in particular were also up. In fact, there was a 71% increase in the number of searches for this city compared to the month before. Additionally, there was a 26% rise in the number of bookings that were made.

    When looking specifically at searches for Croatia, it was found that there had been an 85% increase compared to the previous month. Furthermore, all Croatian destinations and resorts saw an increase of 31% in bookings compared to the previous month. This was specifically for bookings and searches made through sunshine.co.uk.

    There were a number of other searches that were noted on sunshine.co.uk that are likely to be related to the new series. These included ‘Game of Thrones tours’ and ‘Game of Thrones Filming locations’. It seems, therefore, that the series has actually made a significant impact on the minds of people.

    Additionally, Croatia has welcomed the increase in tourism. The country prides itself on its ancient history and beautiful geography and is happy to see that more people will be able to enjoy it. Now that the series has been aired, it seems that searches and bookings continue to rise, so the overall impact could be even more significant.

    Chris Clarkson, Managing Director of sunshine.co.uk, said the following:

    “Croatia is a really beautiful destination which is within easy reach of the UK. I’d say it’s very much still an up and coming holiday location, because it still retains a somewhat undiscovered status. There are so many small islands to explore and so much culture and history to soak up, as well as the year-round sunshine, so it’s not difficult to see what the appeal is.

    “With all of this to offer and the fact the country has been thrown in to the limelight somewhat thanks to Game of Thrones and the TV show’s cult following, it isn’t going to remain undiscovered for very long. People wanting to visit should do so now!”