- The leading bedbank worldwide publishes the trends for the winter holidays
- Four of the top 10 favourite destinations are located in the Asia Pacific continent
- Orlando is ranked as first preferred location to visit this Christmas
Palma, 15 December 2017. Hotelbeds, the leading bedbank worldwide, has published today trends for Christmas hotel bookings made via its own proprietary platform with an increased interest for Asia Pacific as a top destination and source market.
The Hotelbeds platform, which focuses on providing wholesale travel content to online travel agencies (OTAs), tour operators and airlines, has announced that for this Christmas period Orlando will be, as per the previous year, the top destination chosen by tourists around the world booking via Hotelbeds´ travel intermediary partners. This American destination is followed by Phuket, Thailand, which scales two positions in comparison with last year, with a noticeable increase in roomnights booked. The third favorite destination will be New York, with an increase in roomnights.
The ranking of most booked destinations continues with Tenerife, Paris, Bangkok, Dubai, Cancun, Singapore and Hong Kong – with four of the top ten destinations being in Asia Pacific, up from only three last year.
Examining Hotelbeds’ source markets for this Christmas holidays, the United Kingdom (UK) is the most important source market for Hotelbeds, followed by Spain, the United States, Mexico and Brazil. Whilst it remains outside of the top ten, the United Arab Emirates has grown significantly as a source market for Hotelbeds since last year, ranking in 13th position while last year it was 22nd.
Focusing on the UK source market, in descending order of bookings, British people choose to travel to Tenerife (Spain), Lanzarote (Spain), Benidorm (Spain), Phuket (Thailand), Orlando (US), New York (US), Algarve (Portugal), Gran Canaria (Spain), Fuerteventura (Spain) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Their average stay in these destinations for the Christmas period will be 4.47 nights, with average bookings of up to 8 nights in the Spanish destinations. Whilst the source of bookings for the United Kingdom as a destination, by descending order, are the local market, Spain, the US (with a strong increase in roomnights Vs last year), Germany, Netherlands, Egypt, Italy, France, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director Bedbank, Hotelbeds Group commented: “Whilst the traditional Christmas destinations such as Orlando – well known for Disneyland – remain amongst the most popular with travelers who book via our customers, nonetheless a clear trend is emerging compared to last year: Asia Pacific destinations continue to be a growth market for us.
“This reflects in part the ever increasing desire of global travelers to visit the region. But the main driver of the increase in bookings for the destination via our platform is our increased presence in the region as a bedbank, working with local travel sellers in the local source market – many of whose customers in turn want to book hotels for holidays in the region.
“To respond to this increased demand we have been increasing our portfolio of hotels globally, and in particular in Asia-Pacific. Since Tourico Holidays and GTA became part of our Group earlier this year, we now have over 170,000 hotels available on the platform. ”
For the Spanish source market, the most popular destination for Spanish tourists whose booking was made via the Hotelbeds platform this Christmas is Andorra to ski and enjoy winter activities. Despite the Spanish interest in skiing during Christmas time, by descending order they will also go to Tenerife (Spain), Madrid (Spain), New York (US), Paris (France), Gran Canaria (Spain), Benidorm (Spain), Rome (Italy), London (UK) and Barcelona (Spain). There is a big interest for Spanish people to visit Paris (where roomnights have grown strongly), Rome and New York. Spanish tourists will travel to their destinations to spend an average stay of 3.7 nights. During this period Spain as a destination will be visited, in descending order, by tourists from the UK, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the US, France, Sweden, Israel and the Netherlands.
