Visa-free countries, boutique hotels among top Asian travel trends

SENTOSA, Singapore — Travelers in Asia are mostly building their trips around boutique hotels in visa-free countries, according to the latest travel trends observed by marketing and booking sites.

Travel trends were among the topics discussed at the TravMedia Summit Asia 2024 held in Singapore's Sentosa island. The panel was moderated by Mastercard's Senior Vice President for Insights, Analytics, Consulting & Innovation Aditi Sawhney.

Speaking on the panel were Carma's Head of Marketing in Asia Divika Jethmal, Trip.com Singapore's General Manager Edmund Ong, and Marriott International's APEC Communications Vice President Ching Yee Wong.

All three panelists agreed that travel demand in the Asia-Pacific region is recovering but it is still below the global average, with only Japan and Vietnam reaching 100% pre-pandemic inbound arrival levels.

Wong noted that "travel was back," given the strong performance of the region during the second quarter of 2024, while Ong added countries offering visa-free travel was helped in rebooting industries.

The consensus on current travel trends show that people are willing to travel if they see a destination's value for money. They are also willing to extend trips by another day, as well as interested in traveling for experiences like concerts or sporting events.

Related:  Gabbi Garcia, Khalil Ramos share Taiwan travel tips

Jethmal shared social media data from media intelligence service provider Carma that showed that leading travel trends found people are building their trips around boutique hotels, luxury travel, bleisure (business and leisure) travel, solo travel, and tailored experiences.

Some smaller trends included retreat-like silent travel, traveling during off-season, and inter-city train holidays.

Ong said the most popular Asian destinations for the second half of the year based on Trip.com accommodations were Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

A more recent study on Carma showed that the Philippines saw a good volume of social media conversations since the middle of September, along with Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. The same result was found when logged into Google searches.

Some