Visitors pose for a photograph at the Sensoji temple in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Japan. - Bloomberg
NEW YORK: While Dubai received the most positive comments from travellers on TripAdvisor, Asia is expected to be central to many vacation plans in 2024, if the growth of interest in destinations such as Tokyo, Seoul or Vietnam's Halong Bay is anything to go by.
As the New Year dawns, thoughts can turn to projects for the months ahead, including vacation plans. Nearly four years after the pandemic closed borders, Asia stands out as the most trending direction of travel in 2024, according to the growing popularity of destinations on this continent on the reviews site, Tripadvisor.
Every year, the American giant analyses the content of millions of comments, as well as the variation in the ratings given to hotels and restaurants, in an attempt to identify the places attracting the most interest from internet users.
In the resulting 10 destinations named as the trending travel hotspots for 2024, Asia not only takes the top five places, but also counts a total of eight entries.
Tripadvisor considers Tokyo to be the top trending destination for 2024. If the forecasts prove right, this popularity would build on a success story that began with the reopening of Japan's borders in October 2022. Between January and June alone, 10.7 million visitors traveled to Japan, more than during the pre-pandemic period in 2019.
By the summer of 2023, no fewer than four million hikers had made their way to Mount Fuji. In fact, the Japanese authorities have announced plans to introduce an entry quota to avoid turning the sacred mountain into an overwhelmed tourist attraction.
It remains to be seen whether this predicted popularity will be confirmed over the coming months, and whether the recent earthquake on the Noto Peninsula or the fire on a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 at Haneda airport might have dampened travellers' enthusiasm.
Tokyo isn't the only destination in Asia trending among travellers for 2024, according to Tripadvisor.
Vietnam is the only country in the top 10 to benefit from two representatives, namely Halong Bay and the town of Sapa, a gateway to trekking in the country's mountains. Otherwise, South Korea and its capital Seoul, and Palawan Island in the Philippines rank highly in the list.
Asia's strong presence in this list -- based on the greatest year-over-year growth in interest on the reviews platform -- varies greatly from the list of travel hotspots that have proved most popular with TripAdvisor users in recent years.
Dubai, for example, tops the list of travellers' favourite destinations for the third year running. It is followed in this year's ranking of favorite spots by Bali and London.
Top 10 trending travel destinations for 2024 according to TripAdvisor: Tokyo (Japan) Seoul (South Korea) Halong Bay (Vietnam) Palawan Island (Philippines) Sapa (Vietnam) Bogotá (Colombia) Pattaya (Thailand) Alajuela (Costa Rica) Phnom Penh (Cambodia) Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). - Relaxnews/AFP
