Spain’s World Cup win sparks surge in flight searches as ‘dirty’ Argentina face backlash
Data from mainland travel agency shows a sharp rise in inquiries for flights to Spain as losing fans deal with their side’s actions
Chinese fans of both Spain and Argentina had very different reactions to the result following the European champions’ 1-0 extra-time win over the holders in the World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday.
Supporters of Spain were so overjoyed about the victory they immediately started looking into trips to join the celebrations in Europe, while Argentina fans faced a backlash as accusations of “dirty play” by their team trended on social media.
Despite the final finishing in the early hours of Monday morning in China, social media platforms were flooded with users celebrating Spain’s win, with some looking to continue the party offline.
Data from a major mainland online travel agency showed a sharp surge in searches for flights to Spain that morning.
By 9am, searches for flights to Barcelona from various cities had increased by 60 per cent from the previous hour. Searches for Shenzhen to Barcelona surged by 33 times, hour-on-hour, while Kunming to Barcelona searches rose tenfold compared with last week.
Searches for Chongqing to Madrid grew by 90 per cent week-on-week, while searches from Kunming and Jinan to Madrid both jumped by eight times, and Wuhan to Madrid rose by six times.