With silly (read: shopping) season fast approaching, venues across the Harbour City are preparing to host their annual Christmas Markets – with glorious shopping pop-ups appearing in studios, historic buildings and alfresco squares across the city. It’s hard to deny that Sydney's market game is strong, and a new study has just identified our city as the world's trending Christmas market destination for 2024.
To identify the world’s top Christmas market destinations, travel insurance providers InsureandGo analysed online search data to find the cities experiencing the most Christmas market hype compared to last year. According to their research, Sydney is the city where Christmas markets are most significantly on the up – with searches for Christmas markets up by 233 per cent since 2023.
What does that mean for us? The researchers believe that this huge growth in interest in Chrissie markets in Sydney will be reflected in the calibre of markets we see popping up in 2024. So if you thought the festive shopping season last year was good, strap in.
In their research, InsureandGo cited Sydney’s extended Christmas market calendar – with markets popping up as early as November – and the immersive atmosphere of our markets (notably the prevalence of live music) as reasons why the markets here are receiving so much hype. The researchers gave Martin Place Christmas Markets – which will run for four weekends in the lead up to Christmas – a special mention, with a nod to the tallest Christmas tree in NSW, which looms over the CBD square, illuminated by 300 glittering baubles.
Top 10 Trending Christmas Market Cities for 2024
1 - Sydney, Australia
2 - Tokyo, Japan
3 - Cork, Ireland
4 - Seattle, United States of America
5 - Helsinki, Finland
=5 - Montreux, Switzerland
7 - Malmö, Sweden
8 - Geneva, Switzerland
9 - Liverpool, United Kingdom
=9 - Oslo, Norway
Want to find out what all the hype is about? These are the best Christmas markets in Sydney that have been announced for the 2024 season – we expect a lot more to come (including info on the 2024 iteration of our favourite European-style night markets), so we’ll keep you posted.
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