Photo: Irina_Evva – stock.adobe.com
Whether from hiking in the mountains, from a deck chair by the pool or from a café in a museum – for most people, greetings from their vacation are an integral part of summertime. The most popular way to send greetings from a summer vacation is via a classic phone call or via messenger: 70 percent of those planning a summer vacation this year want to send their holiday greetings by phone call or via a messenger service such as WhatsApp or Threema. Social media is also used for this – almost half (48 percent) of summer vacationers send greetings via Instagram, Facebook and Co. Among the youngest between 16 and 29 years of age, the figure is as high as 70 percent, but among the oldest over 65 years of age, only 14 percent. These are the results of a survey commissioned by the digital association Bitkom among 1,005 people in Germany aged 16 and over, including 612 who have planned a summer vacation this year.
Basis: Respondents aged 16 and over who have a summer holiday (n=612), multiple answers possible / Source: Bitkom Research 2024
But postcards are not yet history either. A total of 46 percent want to send their holiday greetings by postcard or letter – a similar number to those using social media. Among 16- to 29-year-olds, 48 percent even reach for pen and paper, almost as many as in the 65+ age group (52 percent). And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a postcard from the souvenir shop: Overall, one in ten summer holidaymakers (11 percent) already uses digital postcard apps that allow them to design greeting cards on their smartphones and then send them by post via the app provider. They are used most among 30- to 49-year-olds (15 percent), and least among the oldest people aged 65 and over (8 percent).
A total of 42 percent of summer vacationers report on their vacation via video calls, 12 percent use classic messaging services such as SMS or iMessage. Only 4 percent write emails to send holiday greetings. In general, a short message to family, friends, etc. is a must for most people on summer vacation: only a total of 3 percent of travelers are foregoing holiday greetings altogether this year.
Source: Bitkom eV
