Insight Vacations is reporting an increase in interest in its Winter Christmas Market tours in Europe for 2012 over the previous year. Marc Kazlauskas, Insight’s president, said the company’s Winter Europe 2012-13 programs, launched in April, found an immediate demand in the marketplace.

“We believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that travelers are becoming savvier and realizing the value of travelling in the off-season,” said Kazlauskas. “Prices are up to 33 percent lower than summer prices, the airfare isn’t significantly less, and the summer crowds are long gone.”

Over the past few years interest by American travelers in European Christmas markets has grown steadily for both tour operators and river cruises. A number of companies now offer itineraries that include such markets. That, in turn, has led to growth in business during a time when Americans previously did not travel to Europe as much.

Insight’s 2012-13 Winter Europe brochure includes three itineraries that feature European Christmas Markets -- a nine-day German Christmas Market, which visits Christmas markets in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Nuremberg, Rothenburg and Munich, priced from $1,725 per person, double occupancy, land only; the 10-day Winter Wonderland with Christmas Markets tour, which includes two-night stays in Munich and Lucerne, as well as a drive along Germany's Romantic Road, a visit to Munich's Marienplatz and its Olympic Stadium, Victory Arch and university and Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg, priced from $1,835 per person, double occupancy, land only; the eight-day Vienna, Prague & Budapest with Christmas Markets, priced from $1,399 per person, double occupancy, land only.