As the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases slacken off in East Asia, many countries have seen a dramatic rise in domestic online travel searches. According to a study conducted by Sojern, many countries like South Korea, New Zealand, Maldives, and China have seen a considerable rise in domestic travel searches and bookings in the past month. As many of these countries make a comeback from the Coronavirus epidemic, the online search trends suggest that the statistics are recovering rapidly from the initial shock and are looking up for the coming months.
South Korea And China Bounce Back
After setting an example to the world by the fastest containment of Coronavirus, South Korea is making a strong revival in the tourism sector. The online travel search figures in South Korea are nearly back to last year’s figures. The online bookings had notedly started from the 23rd of February and have been increasing week on week. The check-in dates at the booked hotels have been seen to be in the next two months. China, on the other hand has recorded international travel bookings and searches like “places to travel to for Chinese New Year” and “places to go during China National Day”. The two extended holidays fall on the 12th and 13th of February and 1st to 3rd of October respectively which showcases that people are keen to travel during their long holidays and have already started planning their trips.
Indians Stand Eager To Travel in Late 2020
India too has shown a sudden rise in online travel searches. Google Trends suggests interests over time for keywords like “weekend getaways” and “honeymoon destinations” have been rising in the past one week and seem to be getting up from the initial decline seen during the end of March. Search trends for keywords like “honeymoon destinations” suggest that it has already recovered 78% of the previous year’s figures. The hospitality industry in India is also aggressively planning campaigns to recover from Coronavirus’s effect on the industry and welcome travellers to the hotels and resorts with strict preventive measures after the coronavirus cases in India decline. Even though confirmed cases of Coronavirus continue to rise, online travel search trends in India see a rise in searches like “holiday destinations for late 2020” and “July 2020 weekend getaways”, which stands proof of people’s increasing eagerness to travel in the coming months.
New Zealand Allows Inbound Flight Bookings
A similar trend has been noted in New Zealand where extreme preventive measures had been taken to fight the Coronavirus epidemic since the beginning of February itself. On the 7th of April, New Zealand recorded the first time that the number of recoveries exceeded the number of new cases. As the country sees a quick recovery, it will soon be lifting the ban for inbound tourists. A huge amount of searches and bookings of inbound flights to New Zealand from late 2020 have already been recorded. The search travel dates start from the 1st of November 2020 till the end of the year.
Maldives Popular Amongst Tourists For Summer 2020
Despite the ban on tourist arrivals from the 27th of March and a complete lockdown in the Maldives, online travel searches suggest that people are still looking forward to spending their summer holidays here. The online travel trends of the Maldives has seen a remarkable rise in the hotel bookings and searches from June 2020 onwards- most of the online traffic coming from the United States and India.
Recovery Of Tourism Not A Far Cry
While a majority of countries in Europe, South-East Asia and the United States fight the Coronavirus epidemic and still stand closed for all inbound tourists, many other countries in other parts of the world are coming out strong from this epidemic. Tourism trends like online searches and bookings have seen a surge in many of these countries and an unexpectedly rapid recovery is being noticed. To ensure a strong rebound in the tourism sector, some countries are also taking measures for the upcoming years like the Singapore government which will soon be putting together a Tourism Recovery Action Task Force to arrange plans for the recovery and growth of the tourism sector. Likewise, the Tourism Secretary of Scotland has also pledged financial support of £2.2 billion to help the tourism industry bounce back.
With the worldwide search statistics looking up and massive financial support from countries to the tourism industry, a speedy come back of the sector might not be a far cry after all. Here’s hoping a super-fast recovery of the tourism industry worldwide!
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