Phu Quoc Island (photo: Getty Images)
Cover Phu Quoc Island (photo: Getty Images)

The results of a new survey released by a top online travel company reveals two holiday destinations that Hongkongers can't get enough of. Can you guess what they are?

According to the results of a new survey by leading online travel company Skyscanner, the fastest-growing travel destinations for Hongkongers in 2019 were Phu Quoc (Vietnam) and Krabi (Thailand)—with Jeju (South Korea), Okayama (Japan), and Istanbul (Turkey) rounding out the top-five. Growing interest in Phu Quoc—which boasted flight bookings up 1,070 per cent year-over-year from 2018—and Krabi—up 523 per cent year-over-year from 2018—can be attributed to a trend the travel site calls JOMO: the joy of missing out, and city-dwellers' cravings for off-the-beaten-path get-away-from-it-all holidays and a decline in "social-media inspired trips"—which are down, year-over-year, by 45 per cent.

The survey, which collected data from more than 7,800 travellers in the Asia-Pacific market, also found that travellers from Hong Kong increasingly sought out "slow travel" experiences in 2019—longer stays and languid activities such as "long walks and hours with a spectacular view while doing nothing."

"Today, travellers enjoy the presence of the moment without feeling the need to document every second of their journey, and saying how two is better than one applies as we see solo travel is not longer pursued by Hong Kong travellers," according to the Skyscanner analysis, which cites a 42 per cent drop in solo travel bookings over the course of the year. 

The most popular destinations for Hong Kong travellers in 2019 were Taipei, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Osaka. Friday was the most popular day for travel to Hongkongers' top-10 destinations in 2019 (despite Monday and Tuesday being the most economical). And the biggest airfare price drops Hong Kong travellers saw in the past year were for travel to Phuket (-17 per cent), Budapest (-12 per cent), Lisbon (-12 per cent), Barcelona (-12 per cent), and Venice, Italy (-10 per cent).