Holiday shopping: Tourists visiting a souvenir market at Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia. — Bloomberg
BANGKOK, Tokyo and Bali were well-loved destinations before the pandemic and they continue to be popular during this year-end travel season.
Kuala Lumpur and Seoul round out the top five places people in Singapore are visiting between December 2022 and February 2023, based on accommodation search data from travel booking platform Expedia.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its low-cost arm Scoot declined to reveal the airlines’ most popular routes, citing commercial sensitivities. But a spokesman for SIA said it expects demand to pick up in East Asia with the recent relaxation of border controls, especially over holiday periods such as Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan 22.
SIA’s load factor in East Asia, which includes destinations such as South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong, has recovered to almost pre-pandemic levels. It was 81% in November, compared with 88% in November 2019.
Newlyweds Tan Ting Wei, 33, and Ronda Lim, 32, spent two weeks in Japan on their honeymoon visiting cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.
Both are fans of the country. Tan, who is the transformation lead at a fire protection equipment supplier, has been there for ski trips while Lim, a public servant, is on a quest to visit all 47 prefectures in Japan.
The couple had intended to go to Croatia, but changed their plans less than a month before their trip after the airline cancelled their connecting flight from Turkey to Croatia.
“Japan had just reopened and we saw friends going there for holidays. Both of us like the country a lot and we enjoy Japanese food,” said Lim.
They found that hotel prices were higher than during pre-pandemic times, especially in Tokyo, where basic rooms in two- to three-star hotels could cost about S$500 (RM1,650) a night. Many affordable chain hotels were also fully booked.
For others such as Jayden Ong, 29, the appeal of a familiar destination is being able to unwind and explore without feeling the need to pack her schedule with sightseeing.
She spent nine days in Thailand in December with her partner and a group of friends. In Bangkok, they visited a slew of restaurants and bars, including Khua Kling Pak Sod, which serves southern Thai food in a refined setting.
Ong, who is the co-founder of composting start-up Soil Social, also spent four days at Wonderfruit, an art, music and culture festival near Pattaya.
“I’ve been to Thailand about 10 times and it is always a comforting place to visit. People are friendly, it is affordable and there are new districts to explore,” she said. — The Straits Times/ANN
