While the high cost of plane tickets has dampened some people’s holiday travel plans, demand isn’t dropping either because many are finally taking the trips they put off during the pandemic.
There have been studies that have shown that independently anticipating and planning a vacation can cause higher levels of happiness and some may experience wanderlust without actually intending to buy.
But either way, Google (The Google) – Get a free report released some of its most searched travel destinations as part of its Biggest in Search roundup of the year featuring some of the year’s most searched events, people and cultural phenomena (“Ukraine”, “Queen Elizabeth’s Passage” and “Monkeypox” are all high up there). )
This is what people book on Google Flights
When it comes to popular locales, London in Great Britain, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and Paris in France top what a Google representative told CNN were cities that saw “significantly higher traffic over a sustained period in 2022 compared to 2021.” .”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that these cities were the most searched for – in the US, large numbers of people were entering the “Caribbean”, “US East Coast” and “Croatia” as their vacation destinations.
Those writing in Travel Destinations have been increasingly interested in Kansas.
In the UK, Turkey came in as the clear winner for those typing “holidays in” into the search engine while Cornwall came in second. Locations such as Italy, Dubai and Spain (all popular destinations for Brits) follow predictably next.
But when looking specifically at Google Flights, Canada was also popular. Cities like Toronto and Vancouver have topped the list of trends this year as the country has opened up to tourism and dumped testing requirements after its southern neighbor.
The only American city to make the top 10 list was New York, and it’s possible that travelers simply have more exotic places on their minds. New Delhi, Rome, Mumbai and Lisbon were the other cities that blew up Google Flights the most in 2022.
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Traveling can be quite a mess but we still do it
Travel, and aviation in particular, is currently in the midst of some serious disruptions. Prices for everything from the flights themselves to car rentals and hotels have skyrocketed but demand is still very high compared to past seasons.
During the summer, huge airport hubs such as London Heathrow and Frankfurt International Airport put passenger caps amid hours-long lines and don’t have enough staff to drop off passengers with their luggage.
Staffing shortages are systemic throughout the airline industry after the mass layoffs that occurred during the pandemic. Some analysts argue that raising fares could create different levels of passengers – those who won’t travel at all and those who will pay to. At least for the time being, aggregate demand is not affected by the price hike.
“We think that through the pandemic, we’ve kind of created a new class of customers, which are the premium consumers who want these products that they may not have had as much access to.” […]Delta President Glenn Hounstein said during an earnings call in October. So I think the big takeaway for us was that there’s a much broader demand for this than just business travelers. “