Amadeus together with the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) recently conducted a comprehensive analysis of the Singapore travel market to identify the most popular searches and bookings made by Singaporean travellers over the next several months.

The report aims to support travel agencies by providing them with an overview of the current travel situation, monitoring supply and demand, and exploring the most popular destinations departing from Singapore. To achieve this objective, Amadeus reviewed the changes and volatility of search demand and the evolution of new GDS bookings.

The travellers' search requests were derived from Amadeus Master Pricer Travel Board, made by travel agencies. Meanwhile, GDS booking results were generated by travel agencies using different GDS, such as Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus, Galileo, Worldspan, and Travelport.

Top 20 destinations with the most searches

The report revealed that Japan emerged as the top destination for searches since March 2023, with Thailand and Australia coming in second and third, respectively. The proportion of searches for each arrival country varied by departure month, with some destinations more popular during specific months. For instance, in December 2023, Japan and Thailand were the most sought-after destinations, with a whopping 50.5% of total searches.

The top 20 destinations of searches are ranked as follows from March 2023 all through March 2024:
1. Japan
2. Thailand
3. Australia
4. United States
5. Indonesia
6. China
7. India
8. Malaysia
9. South Korea
10. United Kingdom
11. Taiwan
12. Philippines
13. Vietnam
14. Germany
15. Canada
16. Hong Kong
17. France
18. New Zealand
19. Italy
20. United Arab Emirates

Top 20 countries with new bookings

In terms of bookings, Japan also topped the charts, followed by Thailand and Indonesia. However, the proportion of bookings received by each country varied across different months. For example, in December 2023, Japan received a staggering 30.1% of all new bookings made by Singaporean travellers, while Indonesia was the third most popular destination, with 3.7% of bookings.

The top 20 destinations countries with new bookings are ranked as follows from March 2023 all through February 2024:
1. Japan
2. Thailand
3. Indonesia
4. South Korea
5. United States
6. Malaysia
7. Vietnam
8. India
9. Taiwan
10. Philippines
11. Australia
12. Hong Kong
13. China
14. United Kingdom
15. Germany
16. New Zealand
17. France
18. Italy
19. United Arab Emirates
20. Canada

Air connectivity key to recovery

In addition to analysing the search and booking trends, the Amadeus report also provides insights into historical and future airline capacity, which Steven Ler, president of NATAS, believes correlates with the popularity of some top destinations.

According to Ler, a closer look at the seat capacity outbound from Singapore shows that the majority of the destinations' capacity has yet to return to 2019 levels, with only South Korea and India showing an overall recovery.

In fact, South Korea has increased its capacity by up to 50% compared to 2019, while the rest of the destinations departing from Singapore to Southeast Asia are still hovering around 70% recovery. This limited capacity and demand for travel to these destinations have significant implications for the travel industry, specifically for the way travel agents sell specific destinations to potential customers.