Southeast Asian travellers are booking East Asian cities beyond the usual gateways, led by Jeju, Fukuoka and Hangzhou, according to Traveloka platform data released on November 9.
The shift differs by market, the Southeast Asian travel app’s year-on-year flight and hotel booking data shows. Flight bookings from Singapore to Jeju have doubled after a direct route was strengthened. In Vietnam, flight and accommodation bookings to Hangzhou more than doubled on the back of new routes. South Korea is meanwhile promoting districts beyond Seoul to foreign visitors.
Indonesian travellers favour Fukuoka, where flight bookings rose by more than 20% and hotel bookings grew by close to 75%. Chengdu’s share of Thai flight and accommodation bookings to China doubled, while Xiamen’s share of Malaysian flight bookings to China more than doubled.
“East Asia is a kaleidoscope of travel opportunities, and the destinations gaining ground vary across Southeast Asia,” said Alex Jung, head of marketing at Traveloka.
In Traveloka’s SEA Index for July to September, Jeju and Hangzhou topped the international destination lists for Singapore and Vietnam respectively. The destination-share figures come from a separate year-to-date analysis.
The data accompanies the platform’s 11.11 sale, which runs from November 3 to 12 across eight markets. Traveloka operates in nine markets, including Australia, Japan and South Korea. Founded in 2012, it has more than 140mn app downloads.
