Nearly 8 in 10 Europeans Want to Travel More This Summer

If you’re curious about Europeans’ priorities with their leisure time, a recent survey has offered an insight. 

The visualization above is based on the data from the Mastercard Economics Institute’s spring 2026 survey. 

Published on May 12, it reveals the top 10 experiences Europeans want to do more of this summer. 

• 79% of Europeans say they want to travel more this summer, the highest-ranked experience in a Mastercard survey of 27,000+ people, followed by food experiences (70%) and outdoor activities (69%)
• Every single category in the top 10 scored above 60%, meaning no experience sector is struggling with desire.

The lowest-ranked categories are historical or heritage experiences and theatre performances, both at 62%. 

In most consumer surveys, 62% agreement would represent a strong majority result. Here, it represents last place.

The range from first to tenth is only 17 percentage points. 

That narrow spread tells us that Europeans are not choosing one or two summer activities at the expense of everything else. 

They are expressing broad, distributed desire across the entire experience landscape.