bookingkit Leisure Market Index – Q2 2026

Strongest second quarter on record: Europe’s leisure market enters peak season with record revenue, returning demand and rising prices

Each month, bookingkit analyses aggregated booking and revenue data from thousands of leisure providers across Europe. The results for June and the full second quarter of 2026 show a market entering summer from one of its strongest positions in recent years. Revenue set a record Q2 above both 2024 and 2025, ticket sales recovered just in time and edged past 2025, and price per ticket returned to +4.3% year-on-year after a soft start to the year. With prices and visitor numbers both rising, operators hold two levers to win the season.

Key Insight 1: Record second-quarter revenue carries momentum into the biggest season of the year

Q2 2026 is the strongest second quarter the bookingkit Leisure Market Index has ever recorded. After a steady first quarter, revenue overtook both 2024 and 2025, with May and June each setting a new monthly high. That means operators enter the weeks that generate the bulk of the year’s revenue with the wind at their back, historically the third quarter is the biggest of the year. To carry the momentum, extend your best spring offerings into summer, keep every sales channel live, and open availability deep into the season. That is how a strong start turns into maximum peak-season revenue.

Key Insight 2: Demand recovers just in time, and the gap to the 2024 peak is the upside

Ticket sales climbed steadily through spring and matched prior-year levels right as summer began. In Q2, volumes edged past 2025 but have not yet caught the historic 2024 record. That gap is the opportunity of the season: the demand is there, it now simply has to be converted in full. Operators should sharpen every conversion lever, a booking flow, availability and payment process without friction, no availability gaps, no drop-offs at checkout. The focus shifts from raw demand to experience quality, reviews and conversion, the factors that close the distance to the record.

Key Insight 3: Pricing power returns, up 4.3% in the second quarter

After cooling through 2025 and dipping to near zero in Q1 2026, price per ticket rose sharply again in the second quarter, up 4.3% year-on-year. As the season opens, prices and visitor numbers are climbing at the same time. That combination has been rare of late, and it opens double headroom: operators can price their peak dates with more confidence without losing demand. The priority is to leave no money on the table, perfect the booking flow, price the strongest days decisively, and guarantee instant availability across every channel.

Lukas C. C. Hempel, Founder & CEO of bookingkit: “The second quarter was our strongest ever, and the decisive weeks are still ahead. For the first time in a while, revenue, visitor numbers and prices are all rising at once. That is the best possible position an operator could ask for at the start of the season. Those who are set up cleanly now, with offering, availability and pricing under control, will win the season. The demand is there, prices are supportive, and the task now is to use both levers with discipline.”

About the bookingkit Leisure Market Index

The bookingkit Leisure Market Index aggregates anonymised booking and pricing data from thousands of attractions, activity providers and experience operators across Europe. It is released monthly to support operators, journalists and analysts with reliable, real-time sector insights. The Index tracks the following core metrics:

• Revenue: The gross value of ticket sales across all operators
• Tickets: The total number of admission tickets sold
• Price per ticket: How pricing evolves over time and how operators adjust their value propositions

Together, these indicators provide a clear, data-driven view of market dynamics, helping stakeholders identify emerging trends early and understand how consumer demand is shifting.

Disclaimer

The bookingkit Leisure Market Index is based on aggregated and normalised data from bookingkit customers as well as selected public and private sources. While bookingkit strives for accuracy, no guarantee is made regarding completeness or timeliness. The insights reflect bookingkit’s perspective at the time of publication and do not constitute legal, financial or investment advice. All analyses are intended for professional use only.