Top 10 Chinese New Year travel trends

Chinese New Year capitals Singapore and Hong Kong are showing record numbers of hotel searches on Wego for the upcoming holiday.

Chinese New Year capitals Singapore and Hong Kong are showing record numbers of hotel searches on Wego for the upcoming holiday. Almost one in five hotel searches were for Singapore from both cities.

Singapore hotels rule
Searches indicate that Singapore travellers this year favour accommodation in their own Lion City as first preference, followed by Batam, Bangkok, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur (in that order). Osaka, Bintan, Bandung and Taichung pushed out popular Bali as new top ten entrants, along with number five Kuala Lumpur. The Indonesian resort island of Bintan is enjoying increased popularity now sharing the same volumes as searches for Bangkok hotels accounting for five per cent of searches.

โ€œSingaporeans are indicating that they either want to stay home, or donโ€™t want to travel too far,โ€ explained Dean Wicks, Chief Marketing Officer for Wego.

From Hong Kong
Singapore again tops the list for Hong Kong travellers in 2013, their top five hotel searches shifted from second choice Bangkok, Osaka, Seoul and Taipei in 2012, to Okinawa, Macau, Seoul and Hong Kong this year.

โ€œNine from ten Hong Kong travellers on Wego are choosing festive celebrations outside of the territory, and we could be seeing a reflection from the Gangnam phenomenon in South Korea although it was also popular during Chinese New Year in 2012,โ€ Wicks added.
Macau and Okinawa were the big movers on the top ten list this year, with Macau barely creeping in during 2012 and now third most searched. Other new destinations on this yearโ€™s list for Hong Kong include Nantou City, Kuala Lumpur, Koror, Cebu and Shenzhen.

By Air
From Singapore flights are trending up for Melbourne and Auckland (new entrants in the top ten) with Bangkok and Singapore remaining in the top three as they did in 2012. New flight searches for Yangon and Chennai were also recorded.

Flights out of Hong Kong showed Singaporeโ€™s heat a number one attraction and increased interest in Seoul (two), Taipei (three) and Tokyo (four). People are looking beyond Taiwan and being lured to Fuzhou, with Jeju, Fukuoka, Nanning and Koror also in the top ten of searches.

โ€œThe data trails left by our Hong Kong users show there is a huge appetite for remote locations and the outdoors,โ€ Wicks explained. โ€œMany travellers are discovering Nantou City, the second largest county in Taiwan renowned for its spectacular mountainous terrain.โ€
Singapore Hotels

2012 Hotels 2013 Hotels
Singapore 16.6% Singapore 18.8%
Bangkok 11.9% Batam 9.4%
Hong Kong 6.0% Bangkok 9.4%
Phuket 4.9% Seoul 6.3%
Bali 4.7% Kuala Lumpur 6.3%
Taipei 4.0% Taipei 4.7%
Macau 2.9% Taichung 4.7%
Penang 2.5% Bintan 4.7%
Seoul 2.2% Osaka 3.1%
Tokyo 2.0% Bandung 3.1%
Sapporo 1.5% Bali 3.1%

Singapore Flights

2012 Flights 2013 Flights
Bangkok 10.1% Bangkok 22.8%
Taipei 4.3% Singapore 4.6%
Singapore 3.8% Hong Kong 3.8%
Bali 3.2% Penang 3.5%
Hong Kong 3.2% Manila 3.2%
Penang 2.9% Auckland 2.6%
Phuket 2.8% Yangon 2.6%
Shanghai 2.1% Bali 2.3%
Manila 2.0% Taipei 2.3%
Kuala Lumpur 1.9% Melbourne 2.3%
Tokyo 1.9% Chennai 2.3%

Hong Kong Hotels

2012 Hotels 2013 Hotels
Singapore 15.7% Singapore 13.8%
Bangkok 13.8% Okinawa 13.8%
Osaka 11.4% Macau 13.8%
Seoul 5.6% Seoul 10.3%
Taipei 5.4% Hong Kong 10.3%
Boracay 3.3% Nantou CIty 6.9%
Pattaya 3.1% Kuala Lumpur 3.4%
Hong Kong 3.1% Koror 3.45%
Phuket 3.0% Cebu 3.4%
Tokyo 2.1% Boracay 3.4%
Macau 1.5% Shenzhen 3.4%

Hong Kong Flights

2012 Flights 2013 Flights
Bangkok 7.9% Singapore 14.3%
Singapore 6.1% Seoul 9.5%
Seoul 4.5% Taipei 7.1%
Taipei 3.9% Tokyo 6.0%
Sapporo 2.9% Bangkok 6.0%
Tokyo 2.9% Osaka 6.0%
Hong Kong 2.5% Koror 5.95%
Koh Samui 2.3% Fuzhou 3.6%
Phuket 2.0% Nanning 3.57%
Kuala Lumpur 1.9% Fukuoka 2.4%
Osaka 1.6% Jeju 2.4%

This research was conducted by Wego, a travel metasearch site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East today revealed some interesting insight into travel over the Chinese New Year.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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