Manila In Top 20 Most Popular Int'l Destinations

The city of Manila made it to the top 20 list of the most popular international destinations this summer, according to the June 20 report of leading travel analytics firm, ForwardKeys.

Photo Insert: The city’s rise in the rankings was "principally explained by the relatively late relaxation of COVID-19 travel restrictions, which triggered a surge in interest."

Manilla climbed 8 rungs to 19th position in the list this summer (July 1 – August 31), based on how extensively travel to the destination has been searched online. The city’s rise was "principally explained by the relatively late relaxation of COVID-19 travel restrictions, which triggered a surge in interest," according to ForwardKeys.

Its Flight Searches data, the most comprehensive source available, covers many billions of searches a year, via an extensive selection of online travel agencies, airlines and metasearch companies including Google Flights, Kayak, Kiwi.com, Skyscanner, Wego, and more.

Bangkok topped the list, 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 has produced the ranking indexed on the basis that Bangkok is 100.

The top twenty, in order, with their index values are: Paris, 73, London, 72; Denpasar, 69; Barcelona, 68; New York, 61; Lisbon, 54; Istanbul, 52, Madrid, 52; Athens, 51; Palma Mallorca, 48; Singapore, 46; Tokyo, 45; Kuala Lumpur, 45; Amsterdam, 44; Copenhagen, 42; Los Angeles, 42; Rome, 39; Manilla, 34 and Frankfurt, 34.

Positions 21 – 100 also 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.

The search rankings are also compared to last year, giving a rise and fall in relative popularity. 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 spots, 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 ten was Athens, up one rung from 11th, while New York rose two spots from 8th in 2022 to 6th positions.

Impressive risers that charged into the top twenty were Tokyo, up 53 places to 13th, Kuala Lumpur, up 24 places to 14th, Singapore, up 14 places to 12th and

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.

Analysis of ForwardKeys’ air ticketing database also revealed interesting new trends. Throughout the pandemic and at the start of the recovery, leisure travel to beach destinations has been in the lead.

Significantly that is now starting to change. Compared to this time last year, 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 USA, where summer outbound flight bookings are now 11% ahead of 2019. It is followed by Canada, 4.0% ahead.

The United Kingdom is just 3.0% behind and the EU is 11% behind. Latin America is the next best revived continental source market, 14% behind. It is followed by India, 17% behind, South Korea, 29% behind, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman), 36% behind and China, 69% behind.

Bangkok's becoming this summer’s most popular travel destination 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, stressed Olivier Ponti, VP Insights of ForwardKeys.

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