How food influences destination choices of Singaporean travellers

Follow where your appetite takes you.

A snap poll of 300 Singaporean and Malaysian travellers by travel metasearch site Wego revealed that almost 60 percent select their destinations based on local food experiences.

Of the split between men and women, all male respondents said they would select travel destinations based on culinary offerings, while 74 percent of women denied that food made a difference to their choices.

“Clearly Singaporean and Malaysian men consider food a pivotal and significant part of the overall travel experience,” said David Lai, Wego’s Market Development Manager for Singapore and Malaysia.

“In our region which is already so historically and culturally diverse, we appear to have an understanding of how food represents those cultures in its own unique way and we as travellers, tend to take that with us in our exploration of the world at large.”

Leading the top culinary destination choices (respectively) are Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Europe.

“All of these destinations are culturally impressive in themselves but also they have their own very distinctive food,” Lai added. “We in Singapore and Malaysia have a unique appreciation I believe of culinary tourism and include dining as an influential piece of their travel planning choices.”

Age it seems is also a factor when it comes to food tourism. Almost all of those over the age of 35 which made up 51 percent of participants, said that they would holiday based on food.

“Travellers under the age of 34 are not surprisingly driven by other factors to travel, although 15 percent of those between 25 and 34 did say that food could be a factor in their choices,” said Lai.