Domestic travel dominates Singaporeans' holiday vacation searches

Most are planning for the Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and school holidays.

Domestic travel destinations for the upcoming holidays dominated most of Singaporean's vacation searches, according to a research by Sojern.

The research found that domestic hotel searches skyrocketed with the demand increasing by 73% YoY.

“When looking at Singapore’s domestic trends, we see that pre-planning has started for the LNY, Valentine’s Day and the March school holidays,” Sojern said.

The data also showed that after the planned air travel bubble fell through because of the spike in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong, travel interest to the region fell by 89% in search and booking as of 3 January.

Meanwhile, Sojern predicts that during the Lunar New Year holiday, domestic travel will soar in the Asia-Pacific region where most celebrate the holiday, especially in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

“What we found is that the demand for travel is predominantly domestically driven, with the exception of Hong Kong where more than 50% are looking at exploring international travel - if it translates into actual bookings will depend on the status of travel restrictions,” Sojem added.