The England team’s victory on Tuesday night saw once sceptical fans flocking online in search of flights to host nation, Ukraine. With many fans keen to get closer to Sunday night’s quarter final match action against Italy, travel comparison website Travel Supermarket saw an 1,325 per cent uplift in flight searches to the host nation in the hours after the match.
Searches to co-host Poland were also up 51 per cent as fans looked at cost effective alternatives to reach Kiev.
By Wednesday the following day, searches had calmed down a little, however TravelSupermarket still saw increases of 779 per cent compared with the previous week. Whereas flight searches to Poland had by then increased by 140 per cent as fans sought to exploit this more affordable route to the game.
British Airways revealed earlier in the week it has deployed its larger aircraft for flights to Kiev to satisfy the expected increase in demand for seats. Reports in the national press suggest up to 10,000 fans who remained at home in the UK for the team’s Group D matches now feel compelled to make the1, 328 mile trip to Kiev for Sunday’s match.
TravelSupermarket’s travel expert Bob Atkinson said:
This is an exciting time for England fans. With the prospect of the team going through to the semis it comes as no surprise so many fans are keen to get themselves over to the host countries and soak up the atmosphere, even if they can’t get hold of a ticket, the buzz around the fan parks will be fantastic.
After a gradual slump in enthusiasm for the national team through the Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello eras, many will be pleased to finally see England’s long suffering fans finally get something to get excited about. Internet searches for the word ‘England’ saw an increase of 67 per cent overnight following the victory against the Ukraine, showing a late surge of interest in the three lions.
Should England do the unthinkable and win their third game in a row, travel experts predict even more fans will chase the England bandwagon into Europe, particularly if the team is set to face Germany (assuming the German team beat Greece on Sunday: update: already beat).
Atkinson continued:
If England do manage a win on Sunday we can definitely expect to see a huge amount of fans searching for flights not just to Ukraine and Poland but also to other European gateways as they look for inventive and creative ways of reaching the action without breaking the bank.
Euro 2012 is set to provide a huge boost for Ukraine’s tourism industry, with an extra 90,000 visitors arriving in the country every day compared with the same period in 2011. In excess of 100,000 fans visited the ‘fan zone’ in Kiev’s Independence Square for the Ukraine v Sweden game. Four Ukrainian cities are hosting matches during the championships – Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv. With matches also held in co-host nation Poland in the cities of Wroclaw, Gdańsk and Poznań.
