English and Irish fans flock to Poland and Ukraine for Euro 2012
Data from Skyscanner shows that England are once again set to have the largest support at this summer’s European Championships, while the Republic of Ireland’s football fans have shown the biggest increase in searches for flights to Poland and Ukraine with a massive 4,200% rise - representing more than 40 times the numbers of searches carried out on the month before.
Skyscanner looked at flight searches from all Euro 2012 participating nations and found Croatia - well known for its colourful and loyal supporters – have also shown great appetite for the tournament and follow close behind Group C opponents Ireland with an increase of 3,500%. Despite experiencing disappointment at a number of recent major tournaments, England fans are also clearly confident of their chances this time around with a hefty tenfold increase in the number of searches to Poland and Ukraine this summer.
And in spite of their failure to qualify, Scotland also seem desperate to join the party with more than double the number of searches for ‘Tartan Army’ flights to Poland and Ukraine.
Further down the list, former European champions France and Italy appear to be less interested than the rest of Europe and occupy the bottom two places in the rankings with Italy seeing just 2,000 searches during the tournament compared to England’s 38,000 fans planning to make the trip.
Increases in flights to Poland/Ukraine from participating nations*
| Ranking | Country | Before | During | Increase |
| 1 | Republic of Ireland | 315 | 13627 | 4226% |
| 2 | Croatia | 16 | 580 | 3525% |
| 3 | England | 3410 | 38414 | 1027% |
| 4 | Netherlands | 333 | 3739 | 1023% |
| 5 | Portugal | 142 | 1316 | 827% |
| 6 | Greece | 96 | 827 | 761% |
| 7 | Denmark | 124 | 1066 | 760% |
| 8 | Sweden | 320 | 2496 | 680% |
| 9 | Germany | 979 | 6604 | 575% |
| 10 | Czech Republic | 85 | 564 | 564% |
| 11 | Russia | 882 | 5321 | 503% |
| 12 | Spain | 747 | 4114 | 451% |
| 13 | France | 375 | 1096 | 192% |
| 14 | Italy | 854 | 1965 | 130% |
Skyscanner’s Football Expert Sam Poullain said: “It’s not surprising that Irish fans have shown such an appetite for this tournament given that the Republic’s last participation at the European Championship Finals was back in 1988. The fact that so few Irish holidaymakers would normally plan to visit Poland and Ukraine at this time shows that this remarkable increase is undoubtedly down to the football."
Whether or not Giovanni Trapattoni’s men can get out of a tough group which includes reigning champions Spain, Italy and Croatia remains to be seen, but for now the Republic’s football fans believe they will have the luck of the Irish this summer.”
*Wed 9 May - Tue 22 May 2012 (Before) v Wed 6 June - Tue 19 June 2012 (During). Figure taken in Dec 2011. 16 nations participating in Euro 2012, table excludes hosts Poland and Ukraine who qualify automatically.
Image courtesy of uefa.com/uefaeuro
