Leading travel analytics firm ForwardKeys has revealed the hundred most appealing city destinations this summer and the answer might surprise you. Rankings are based on how extensively travel to them has been searched online by global consumers.
Based on data from ForwardKeys Flight Searches, which is considered the most comprehensive source available, the results cover billions of searches a year for the period July 1 to Aug. 31, via an extensive selection of online travel agencies, airlines and metasearch companies including Google Flights, Kayak, Kiwi.com, Skyscanner, Wego, and more.
And top of the list is… Bangkok. The Thai city was far ahead of the second most searched destination, Paris.
As over 1.1 billion searches were analyzed for the report, to make the list more digestible, ForwardKeys produced the ranking indexed on the basis that Bangkok is 100.
After Bangkok, the top 10, in order, with their index values are:
2. Paris, 73
3. London 72
4. Denpasar (Bali), 69
5. Barcelona, 68
6. New York, 61
7. Lisbon, 54
8. Istanbul, 52
9. Madrid, 52
10. Athens, 51
The rest of the top 20 included: Palma Mallorca, 48; Singapore, 46; Tokyo, 45; Kuala Lumpur, 45; Amsterdam, 44; Copenhagen, 42; Los Angeles, 42; Rome, 39; Manilla, 34 and Frankfurt, 34.
Meanwhile, positions 21-40 featured include Antalya, Berlin, Cancun, Cairo, Delhi, Dubai, Dublin, Ho Chi Minh City, Malaga, Marrakech, Miami, Milan, Punta Cana, San Francisco, Seoul, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Warsaw, Valetta, and Vienna.
Vancouver was the only Canadian city to rate, ranking 50th, though up 14 spots from 2022.
The search rankings are also compared to last year, giving a rise and fall in relative popularity. Some notable insights:
• Bangkok is up three places, pushing Paris off the top spot.
• London holds its position, in 3rd place.
• In capturing 4th position, Bali’s capital, Denpasar, rose six places, pushing down Barcelona to 5th, Lisbon to 7th, Istanbul to 8th, Madrid to 9th and Palma Mallorca to 11th.
• A new entrant in the top 10 was Athens, up one place from 11th.
• New York rose two places from 8th in 2022 to 6th this year.
• Impressive risers that charged into the top 20 were Tokyo, up 53 places to 13th, Kuala Lumpur, up 24 places to 14th, Singapore, up 14 places to 12th and Manilla, up 8 places to 19th. Their rise is principally explained by the relatively late relaxation of COVID-19 travel restrictions, which triggered a surge in interest.
The top 10 list of highest climbers is dominated by Asian and Australasian cities, which, last summer, were still subject to some of the strictest and most enduring pandemic travel regulations. The highest climber is Taipei, up 161 places to 56th. It is followed by Hong Kong, up 129 places to 39th, Seoul, up 56 places to 35th, Tokyo, up 53 places to 13th, Hanoi, up 41 places to 76th, Auckland, up 41 places to 103rd, Melbourne, up 31 places to 75th, Ho Chi Minh City, up 30 places to 52nd, Kuala Lumpur, up 24 places to 14th and Phuket, up 24 places to 57th.
Trends
Analysis of ForwardKeys’ air ticketing database also reveals some interesting new trends. Throughout the pandemic and at the start of the recovery, leisure travel to beach destinations has been in the lead. However, that is now starting to change. Compared to this time last year (2022), summer flight bookings to beach destinations are 22% ahead; however, urban destinations are 42% ahead, nature destinations are 45% ahead and shopping destinations are 53% ahead.
Looking at the global travel recovery, benchmarked against pre-pandemic (2019) levels, worldwide summer bookings are just 13% behind. However, there is a huge difference geographically. The strongest major source market is the US, where summer outbound flight bookings are now 11% ahead of 2019. It is followed by Canada, 4% ahead.
Other notable trends to emerge from a more in-depth analysis of flight bookings include the growth of London as a hub for multi-destination, long-haul trips to Europe, the attractiveness of music festivals, and the greater speed of recovery in outbound travel from China compared to Japan.
Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys, said: “Congratulations to Bangkok in becoming this summer’s top of the travel pops. Its popularity is a clear sign that with the reopening of the Asian markets, we are about to see the first ‘normal’ summer since the pandemic, with 19 mainstream Asian cities listed in the top 100.
“The Caribbean also deserves congratulations because it has managed to maintain its popularity in the face of greater competition from numerous other destinations which are now open again.”