NEW YORK, Sept 11 — In the months since the November terrorist attack in Paris and the March bombing of the Brussels airport, Americans did something that may seem counterintuitive. They went to Europe more, with travellers up 5 per cent in April, according to the US Department of Commerce’s National Travel & Tourism Office.

Most of those trips were probably booked well in advance, as international travel usually is, and these numbers predate the June terrorist bombing in Istanbul and the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France. But airline data, tourism statistics and the reports of travel agencies and tour operators show international travel is alive and well though it may be shifting to countries like Spain and Ireland in the European Union, as well as farther-flung destinations like the Galápagos Islands, even as travel to closer-to-home destinations like Canada and the national parks surges.

"It’s not a great year to have France as your No. 1 destination,” said Norman Howe, president and chief executive of the high-end tour operator Butterfield & Robinson, which historically conducted most of its trips in France. This year, Italy has supplanted France, where the company’s business is down 10 to 15 per cent. "In France, there was a sustained cycle of events starting around last November, and, the reality is, these days we’re not falling off a cliff, but there’s a cumulative effect.”

One place that has benefited among Butterfield & Robinson’s clients is North America, where business has doubled. Trips have surged to Newfoundland, Quebec and British Columbia. "Canada’s a triple whammy,” Howe said, citing its popular new prime minister, the favourable exchange rate and its reputation as safe.

A public square in the Vieux Port neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, June 10, 2012. — Picture by J. Adam Huggins/The New York Times

At Abercrombie & Kent, Europe still did well this summer, especially Italy and Spain. "We’ve seen very, very few cancellations in areas specifically impacted by terrorism issues in Europe,” said Keith Baron, a senior vice president. "We have seen a slowdown in new business to those areas.”

It’s hard to pin terrorism fears to the spike in interest in America’s National Parks, especially given their widely publicised centennial celebration this year, but traffic has jumped for several operators, including Austin Adventures.

"As we talk to guests, many who have families, they are not giving up on Europe, but are just looking closer to home for now,” wrote Dan Austin, the owner of Austin Adventures, in an email. "Europe was the only region where we saw a dip in bookings. Everything else across the board was up, with domestic travel seeing the biggest increase. For us, domestic travel definitely picked up the Europe fallout.”

Bookings at Ovation Vacations, a New York agency that specialises in luxury travel, went to Italy, Spain and Greece, while its France business fell by 43 per cent. Having suffered its own downturn in the last few years related to bankruptcy concerns and refugee traffic, Greece rebounded strongly. Still, the biggest gains were domestic.

Sheep on a farm on Fair Head, a promontory east of Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, a frequent ‘Game of Thrones’ filming location, June 12, 2013. — Picture by Hazel Thompson/The New York Times

"In my market, our people are going to travel,” said Jack S. Ezon, president of Ovation Vacations. "They may just change where they’re going this year. They said, ‘All right, I can always go back to Paris. Why go this year? This year, let’s explore something new.’ For so many of them, new and exotic became the Grand Canyon. Some have been to Luang Prabang or the Irrawaddy River and the Mekong, but they’ve never been to Arizona.”

Airlines have done their part to stimulate European travel by dropping prices. The airfare prediction app Hopper found that this August, relative to August 2015, airfares dropped the most to Europe, by 22.5 per cent, compared with other regions, including domestic.

"We’ve seen incredible discounting to Europe over this last summer, and we’re still seeing traffic being weak,” said Patrick Surry, chief data scientist with Hopper. He said that European searches were down by nearly a quarter over last year, with Mexico, Central America and United States destinations picking up that slack.

Still, Europe has bright spots in places like Spain and Ireland. In the first half of the year, the online travel planner Expedia found its air traffic rise 20 per cent to Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, and 33 per cent to Dublin.

More exotic destinations like Africa and Vietnam have also gained at Butterfield & Robinson. "There are no lack of challenges in these other places, but they don’t have that specific one,” Howe said. "The anti-terror component makes other issues seem small.” — The New York Times

Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, September 9, 2013. — Picture by Hazel Thompson/The New York Times