When it comes to choosing a holiday destination, it's always interesting to see the locations other people are interested in around the world. New research from Compare the Market has analysed search data from Google Trends to reveal how some of the world’s most popular holiday destinations have grown and fallen in popularity over the past decade between 2009 and 2019.
The research indicated that when it came to cities, the Hungarian capital of Budapest came out on top, with an 87.20% increase in search traffic. This also reflects tourism figures, which have risen by 39.58% according to Euromonitor. The report attributes the increase to far more direct flights to Ferenc Liszt International Airport, major tourism drives by the government and the fact that it’s one of the cheapest cities in Europe to visit. Other cities with a big increase in popularity included 2. Seoul 3. Copenhagen 4. Tel Aviv and 5. Warsaw.
In terms of countries, the Philippines enjoyed the greatest increase in search interest over ten years, with an increase of 170.45%. This was followed by 2. South Korea 3. Saudi Arabia 4. Kazakhstan and 5. The Netherlands. The countries that experienced the biggest decrease in popularity in terms of searches were 1. Egypt 2. Tunisia 3. Turkey 4. France and 5. Brazil.
The research uncovered some interesting findings, notably that people are now considering travelling much further for their holidays to places that they may not have considered a decade ago, such as Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. To view the full list of countries and cities and where they ranked, please see here.
