DidaTravel charts Southeast Asia’s top destinations

SHENZEN, China, 27 May 2022: Thailand’s destinations dominate DidaTravel’s bookings chart for the first four months of 2022 confirming the country leads recovery in booking volume in Southeast Asia channelled through the global hotel wholesaler.

At the country level, Thailand leads the Southeast Asia market growth, with bookings up 324% from 1 January to 30 April compared with the same four-month period in 2021. The total booking volume for Thailand from 1 January to 30 April 2022 was 1.7 times of Malaysia, 2.2 times of Indonesia, 3.3 times of Singapore, 3.4 times of the Philippines, and 11.4 times of Vietnam. The company said the exact booking order amounts were confidential.

DidaTravel said the vast lead in total booking volume for the four months confirmed Thailand as its top destination in the region for its B2B travel buying clients based worldwide.

In its booking performance chart identifying the top 20 destinations, Bangkok topped the list, but other destinations in Thailand returned positive booking trends too. Pattaya on Thailand’s eastern seaboard clocked fourth place, followed by sixth-placed Phuket, Krabi (11), Chiang Mai (12), Hua Hin (15), and Samui (18).

Overall, data from DidaTravel shows that Southeast Asia’s hotel bookings have increased by 460% YoY, even surpassing the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 15%.

At the same time, the top destinations (cities as opposed to countries) booked by DidaTravel’s B2B buyers, such as travel agents, tour operators, OTAs, TMCs and MICE, are as follows:

As the demand for Southeast Asia hotel products rises, DidaTravel has added more rooms to its inventory. In the past three years, DidaTravel’s hotel numbers in Southeast Asia have maintained double-digit growth to reach 44% — taking the total number of hotels available in the region to 28,000, of which 3,712 hotels are directly contracted. 

In part, this growth has been driven by DidaTravel’s recently announced plan to increase the number of directly contracted hotels globally by the end of 2022 to reach 74,000.

DidaTravel Founder & CEO Rikin Wu said: “DidaTravel has had a rich local knowledge and strong contracting presence in Southeast Asia for a long time – so it is very exciting to see growth in Southeast Asia as demand rebounds. I am optimistic about the travel industry in 2022 because we see more and more countries are easing travel restrictions across the region to bring back the much needed long-haul travellers who stay longer and spend more.

“We’ve been working hand-in-hand with our Southeast Asian hotelier partners to attract and welcome domestic and international travellers to their hotels. I’m proud to confirm that we now have 28,000 hotels in the region, 3,712 directly contracted.” 1 All figures quoted refer to bookings made via DidaTravel from 1 January to 30 April 2019, 2021, and 2022.