Date: 18 December 2012
Singapore, Malaysia Top Travel Hot Spots for Indonesians.
Singapore and Malaysia topped a list of Indonesian tourists’
favourite travel destinations this year, a report showed on Tuesday. The travel
research website Skyscanner said Thailand, Australia and Hong Kong followed
behind. The United States, Britain, China, Japan and the Netherlands rounded
out the top 10 destinations.
“We see an interesting growth from several international
destinations that were previously unpopular,” said Skyscanner’s market
development manager for Indonesia, Ira Noviani. “We believe that low-cost
carriers in Asia and competitive ticket prices allow Indonesian tourists to
have more alternatives.”
The emergence of new Asia-Pacific airlines such as Scoot and
Malindo is expected to further fuel regional tourism, a trend that is in part
the result of greater middle-class purchasing power in Indonesia and
neighboring nations.
Korean pop (K-pop) fever, which has stormed the country in
the last few years, was one contributing factor to a striking increase in
searches of travel information for South Korea, with a 475 percent increase in
such queries from last year. South Korea was followed by United Arab Emirates
(298 percent), Taiwan (281 percent), Hong Kong (263 percent) and the
Netherlands (237 percent) on the list of countries seeing the biggest increase
in interest.
Australians still took top honours for the highest number of
foreign tourists who visited Indonesia in 2012, followed by travellers from
Singapore, Russia and Britain.
Meanwhile, Jakarta, Bali and Surabaya were the most popular
destinations within the archipelago. Skyscanner observed that 58 percent of
Indonesian tourists traveling with families preferred to stay within the
country. However Indonesia, based on Skyscanner’s search data, still failed to
unseat Thailand as the most popular destination in Asia.
“It is unsurprising that Thailand is the most searched
country in the Asia-Pacific region. Thailand has a lot to offer - from clean
beaches and delicious cuisine to affordable shopping tours and remarkable
parties. Everything for everyone,” said Skyscanner’s Asia-Pacific regional
director, Ewan Gray.
Skyscanner predicts that the advance of mobile Internet
technologies will continue to reshape trip planning in 2013 and beyond. Its
Skyscanner mobile application has been downloaded 12 million times since its
launch.
By Faisal Maliki Baskoro
Copyright ©2011 JakartaGlobe
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