Bangkok--27 Jan--Weber Shandwick
Japan is heating up in popularity while interest in North Eastern Thailand cities surges amongst domestic destinations
Skyscanner, the leading online travel search engine, has put together data to show emerging destinations (defined by destinations with largest percentage growth in searches) gaining popularity among Thai travellers in 2016. The data has been collected from flight searches by Thais in 2016.
Japan is Thai's favorite travel destination with 4 Japanese cities dominating the top 10 emerging international destinations list; Searches to Fukuoka has grown 93.3%, Nagoya at 50%, Sapporo at 41%, and Osaka at 33.4%.
Taipei also enjoyed increased interest from Thais, especially with Taiwan granting visa-free privileges to Thai passport holders late 2016. Thais' appetite for adventure was fulfilled with destinations like Leh Ladkh (88%) in India, which is one good-value Himalayas destination in India - an array of traditional festivals and fervent religious rituals. The region is famous for its natural beauty, ancient monasteries and religious sites filled with rich cultural heritages and adventurous activities. In addition to this, Reykjavik (65%) is also a destination to chase the famous northern lights in Iceland.
Top 10 emerging international destinations:
Fukuoka
Leh
Cologne
Reykjavik
Surabaya
Nagoya
Taipei
Sapporo
Osaka
Bahrain
For domestic destinations, while cities in Northern Thailand like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are amongst Thais most-searched, provinces from Northeastern part of Thailand witnessed the largest growth in interest, with Loei, demonstrating an increase of 20.8%, followed by Ubon Ratchathani, (14.7%), and Udon Thani (13.4%) respectively.
Top 10 emerging domestic destinations:
Loei
Ubon Ratchathani
Udon Thani
Pai (Mae Hong Son)
Roi Et
Sakon Nakhon
Nakhon Si Thammarat
Hat Yai (Songkhla)
Chiang Rai
Surat Thani
Nattiya Hothong, Marketing Manager, Skyscanner Thailand, said "2016 marks a significant, yet interesting year especially for Thailand's tourism industry. Judging from the emerging destinations searched on Skyscanner, these are also the destinations which are highly searched on Google and commonly found sharing on Social Media and online community in Thailand throughout the year. This
reflects how online travel reviews and sharable contents have more or less impacts on Thai traveller's decision making when it comes to trips planning." Ms. Hothong added "In addition to this, we have the government policies on special holiday announcements in May and July 2016, tourism campaigns and tax break policy which contributed to the growth in tourism."
For more information on emerging domestic and international destinations in 2016, please visit:http://www.skyscanner.co.th/press-releases/thai-travel-trend-2017