Rising demand for travel to Asia-Pacific destinations in 2023

Following Statista research revealing that the volume of inbound travellers to Asia-Pacific is expected to grow throughout 2023 and 2024, rising 94 per cent compared to the previous year, Trip.com has analysed the booking trends to popular destinations.

It has looked at tourist hotspots Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Japan has consistently been ranked among the top five destinations globally in terms of bookings and search volumes since entry restrictions were eased in the last quarter of 2022. According to Trip.com data, global hotel bookings for arrivals between 15 March and 30 June increased by 237 per cent year-on-year. Global flight bookings also increased by 317 per cent (2022–2023) for travellers during the same period. The most popular European flight routes were from London to Tokyo and Paris to Tokyo.

For South Korea, Trip.com data reveals that global hotel bookings for arrivals between 15 March to 30 June increased year-on-year by 51 per cent. Flight bookings from Europe increased by 456 per cent year-on-year for arrivals during the same period. The most popular flight routes were from London to Seoul, followed by Paris to Seoul.

Following China’s decision to reopen borders in December 2022, Hong Kong was one of the places which led the surge as one of the top five tourist destinations for outbound visitors from mainland China. Trip.com data shows global hotel bookings for arrivals between 15 March to 30 June increased year-on-year by 13 per cent from 2022 to 2023.

Flight bookings from Europe increased by 1362 per cent year-on-year from 2022 to 2023, for arrivals between 15 March to 30 June. The most popular flight route was from the UK to Hong Kong, followed by Germany to Hong Kong, and the top five destinations for tourists were mainland China, Singapore, UK, US and Canada.