Bali. Bangkok. The Maldives.
These destinations often top “bucket lists” for global travelers, but travelers from Asia-Pacific are planning trips to other destinations in the region, search data from Booking.com this year showed.
The data, which analyzes searches from Jan. 1 to June 30, showed travel interest in Asia-Pacific varies by country. However, one country ranked high in 70% of the analyzed territories: Japan.
Tokyo topped search lists in the region, yet Osaka also appeared on the top 10 lists for travelers from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.
Japanese travelers also favored their own country, with only one of their top searched destinations located in another country — Seoul, South Korea (No. 5).
The southern city of Fukuoka (No. 4 in Japan) also ranked high for travelers from South Korea and Hong Kong.
Who isn’t searching for Japan travel?
Vietnamese, Indian and Malaysian travelers showed less interest in Japan — and international destinations as a whole — in favor of places in their own countries, according to Booking.com’s data.
The top 10 places searched by Vietnamese travelers were all in Vietnam, led by the coastal city of Danang where domestic searches rose 94% year on year, the data showed.
Similarly, the top 10 places searched by Malaysians were in their country, led by Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Georgetown, located on the island of Penang.
However, the top searched place among Indians was Dubai. In the first half of 2025, nearly 10 million travelers arrived in Dubai, with more than one in 10 coming from India, according to DD News, India’s public service broadcaster.
From Bali to Bangkok
Within Australia, Sydney and Melbourne may draw the most international travelers, but those in Australia searched for trips to the Gold Coast — a region along the eastern coast — at higher rates, according to Booking.com’s data. Australians also searched for trips to Bali (No. 5) at higher rates than Tokyo (No. 7) and Singapore (No. 9), it showed.
Bangkok ranked among the top searched destinations for travelers in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, the data showed. However, search interest to the Thai capital plunged year on year in China (-20%) and South Korea (-18%), according to Booking.com’s data.
Thailand is struggling to attract international travelers — especially those from China, its largest source market — with foreign visitor arrivals from Jan. 1 to Aug. 17 dropping 7% year over year, according to Reuters.
In August, officials revised Thailand’s projected tourist arrivals to 33 million from 37 million.
In 2019, Thailand welcomed nearly 40 million foreign travelers, according to its official tourism authority.
—CNBC’s Kaela Ling contributed to this report.
Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that Booking.com’s data covers 10 territories in Asia-Pacific.
