St Maarten, Congo and Ethiopia top list of emerging destinations with biggest growth in year-over-year interest. Argentina, Austria and Brazil take first, second and third spots for growth in interest to most popular (largest) destinations on Skyscanner
Skyscanner released its annual Global Travel Trends report , highlighting the key trends impacting the aviation sector and the wider travel industry for 2020. The report reveals changing traveller habits regarding cabin classes and sustainable flight offerings, as well as the destinations seeing the biggest growth in interest year over year, based on flight bookings 1 on Skyscanner.
Premium Economy surging in popularity for long haul passengers 2019 saw a surge in popularity for Premium Economy with bookings on long haul flights growing by 8% year-over-year. While Economy still dominates as most booked cabin class overall, it’s worth noting that when travellers are taking longer flights, they are willing to stretch their budget for those extra comforts. On shorter flights however, the cabin class gaining the biggest growth in interest was First Class; searches and bookings for First Class cabin tickets rose by 5% year-over-year.
Skyscanner’s Greener Choice label helping travellers select more sustainable flight options
Earlier this year, Skyscanner launched a ‘Greener choice’ label for flights across 30 top markets. Greener Choice flights are identified by looking at factors like aircraft model, age, fuel efficiency, flying distance, capacity and cruise time and highlight the flights which emit less CO2 than the average for the route travellers are searching.
‘Greener choice’ labels helped 19% of travellers in the EMEA region – almost one in five people – to find more efficient flights on Skyscanner. In APAC, the number is 16% and 12% in the Americas.
Hugh Aitken, VP Commercial for Skyscanner, commented: “The data indicates there’s a growing number of travellers who believe it’s worth paying more for a luxury experience – whether it’s stretching to Premium Economy for a long-haul flight or even First Class when flying a shorter distance, it’s a positive sign for airlines wanting to upsell customers to higher fare families.”
“We’re incredibly pleased to see our Greener Choice label, which highlights lower emission flights, gaining traction amongst our users. We believe it’s important to empower travellers with the information they need to choose flights that are more eco-friendly wherever possible, so they can continue to explore the world.” concluded Aitken.
Argentina, Austria and Brazil see biggest growth in interest amongst top 50 popular destinations (based on global Skyscanner user searches)
In order to account for a market’s existing popularity amongst users and show relative growth, Skyscanner placed global markets into three different tiers and analysed the year over year increase in interest. Looking at the top 50 most popular markets on Skyscanner, Argentina and Austria take 1st and 2nd place, each seeing 39% rise in traveller interest.
Major destinations (positions 1-50 in global popularity)
- Argentina 39%
- Austria 39%
- Brazil 27%
- Pakistan 26%
- Peru 21%
- Hungary 19%
- Colombia 17%
- Turkey 17%
- Korea 14%
- Mexico 12%
Caribbean islands, Central Asia and Africa dominate emerging destinations rankings
(based on global Skyscanner user searches)
Looking at markets outside of the top 50, we see tremendous growth in traveller interest towards destinations in Central Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. St Maarten is the overall winner with a 91% rise in interest, thanks in part to the heavy investment in infrastructure and resorts as part of the recovery efforts following the devastation of hurricane Irma. Puerto Rico (43%) and the Virgin Islands (43%) have experienced similar growth.
Central and East Africa are also big winners this year, with Congo and Ethiopia seeing 49% and 46% growth in year-over-year traveller interest, respectively. Central Asia is equally on the rise – Azerbaijan (42%) and Uzbekistan (37%) can both expect a lift in the number of visitors they welcome this year.
Middle size destinations (positions 51-100 in global popularity)
- Azerbaijan 42%
- Uzbekistan 37%
- Ghana 32%
- Nigeria 30%
- Jordan 26%
- Bangladesh 22%
- Lebanon 21%
- Panama 20%
- Chile 19%
- Maldives 18%
Smaller size destinations (positions below 101 in global popularity)
- St Maarten 91%
- Congo 49%
- Ethiopia 46%
- Guinea 45%
- Puerto Rico 43%
- Virgin Islands 43%
- Faroe Islands 35%
- Belize 33%
- Cayman Islands 33%
- Eritrea 30%
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
