Thailand is second most popular vacation spot for Singaporean travellers, study finds

GfK, a key participating company at “TravelRave 2015”, is one of the sponsors at the ITB Travel Forum and the WIT (Web in Travel) Singapore to be held at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from Tuesday to Friday next week.

GfK will present findings from the inaugural Travelscan Singapore report at the ITB Asia event. Travelscan is based on consolidated and aggregated industry booking data provided by members of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore to GfK, with the aim of helping the industry better predict market developments.

In the first three quarters of 2015, the countries that registered significantly more visitors flying in from Singapore than in the same period last year were Thailand, Japan and Vietnam, where flight bookings rose by 44, 33 and 12 per cent, respectively. “Thailand has always been an attractive destination for Singapore travellers and since the beginning of the year, we have been seeing a surge in the number of visitors flying in mostly to Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai – the three most popular places in Thailand,” said Laurens van den Oever, global industry lead for travel and hospitality at GfK.

“The August 17 bombing in Bangkok didn’t have any long-term impact on local tourism, it seems; flight cancellations [were] only for a couple of weeks, after which booking patterns were back on course again.”

Although China remains the most popular destination, where around one in every five (19 per cent) visitors from Singapore head for, this year saw a 6-per-cent drop in flight bookings from Singapore to that country. Hong Kong and Indonesia similarly reported declines by 11 and 8 per cent.

“The latest data will help to provide a good indication of the industry’s latest development and consumers’ travel behaviour and can definitely help players in the market strategize and plan their businesses more efficiently in anticipation of market trends,” van den Oever said.