Welcome to the ‘new grand tour’: Americans claim their ‘euro summer’ moment

 ROME - According to the US National Travel and Tourism Office, 7.7 million Americans flew to Europe in the first 5 months of 2025, a 6 per cent increase on the previous year. The dominance of American accents in many European hotspots this year leaves many of us thinking, what’s with the sudden inundation?

 The United States and the Middle East aren’t exactly stable places to go on holiday at the moment, which can explain some of the attraction to Europe. Alongside this, internal European tourism is down on 2024, reflecting economic caution on the continent.

 Indeed, the boom in American tourists to Europe may well reflect the increasing economic gap between the two continents. Americans in many cases earn three to four times the salaries of their European counterparts. A ‘Neo-Grand Tour’ is emerging and this time it is young Americans freshly loaded on energy and tech bucks, rather than Northern European aristocrats splashing industrial pounds. 

 This new Grand Tour is defined by wealthy Americans seeking their ‘euro summer’ moment - an online trend associated with Americans discovering such novelties as walking-to-places and affordable-fresh-food. 

 As with the first Grand Tour, newly minted Americans are seeking European refinement, or to borrow the framing of Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, ‘cultural capital’. This is the idea that Americans are looking to signify their cultural superiority through the ‘euro summer’. Social media is key to this, no euro summer would be complete without the golden hour spritz pics and museum selfies. Americans are visiting a continent to communicate back to their own: I have money, but I also have taste.

 Just like the 1800s, Rome remains on the Tour menu. Americans were the second largest visitor group to the city last year, ahead of the French and British. Not bad considering there is an entire ocean in the way. It is likely that the US will come within striking distance of the indomitable German tourist this year. 

 Of course, in some ways this is nothing new, East Coast Liberals have been visiting Europe for a slice of cultural cake for decades. What’s changed are the numbers involved. What was once the preserve of the WASPy elderly couple booking through a travel agent and travelling in a taxi, has now reached the twenty something apartment sharer in New York earning 100K a year. The latter cannot truly experience their wealth at home, so choose to cosplay it in a different continent, where an Airbnb, coffees and meals out barely dent their teetering credit cards. 

 The difference is that the nouveau riche can’t afford the hotels and taxis, at least not if they want to make their 'euro summer' an annual occasion. They therefore opt to use public transport and reside in Airbnbs in residential areas. But this just happens to be how locals travel and live. Hence resentment bubbles beneath the surface of many European cities such as Rome, where activists have cut lock boxes from outside Airbnbs. This turned out to be quite effective - lock boxes are now illegal in Rome. 

 In further response to the new Grand Tourers, Rome is set to implement a new law which would limit short term rentals (Airbnbs) through licensing, a 90 night cap and higher taxes. But it is unclear whether this will be enough or will merely limit visits to the most wealthy. 

 Despite the COVID intermission, mass tourism is back with a vengeance and it’s led by a newly minted class of Atlantic-hopping young professionals. The ‘euro summer’ is coming for a city near you, but this time a different continent is claiming its cultural rites. 

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