SE Asia Tourism Rebounds

New data from Airbnb has revealed that travel is returning to Southeast Asia, presenting fresh opportunities for communities across the region.
According to internal data from the platform, nights booked across Southeast Asia on Airbnb doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, indicating an ongoing recovery in the region as travel gradually returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Thailand was the most visited country on Airbnb in Southeast Asia in 2021, with top cities in the region including Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Phuket.
The United States was the most common country of origin for international Airbnb guests visiting Southeast Asia in 2022, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea.
Intra-Southeast Asia travel remained popular, with Singaporeans being the most frequent travellers using Airbnb to book getaways.
The top intra-Southeast Asia travel route on Airbnb was Singapore-Malaysia, followed by Singapore-Thailand and Singapore-Indonesia.
Airbnb’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Nathan Blecharczyk, expressed excitement about the travel resurgence in Southeast Asia and the platform’s commitment to partnering with local governments and communities to support the region’s travel renaissance.

The platform is also focused on relentlessly innovating to help disperse travel beyond familiar destinations so that more communities can benefit from the socio-economic opportunities that tourism offers.
The data showed that group travel in Southeast Asia more than tripled year-on-year in 2021, as many travelers focused on connecting and reconnecting with loved ones.
Family travel on the platform increased 60 percent in 2022 globally compared to pre-pandemic, with more families booking Airbnb stays for their value and space.
Solo travel in the region also grew by more than 2.6x, up from the year prior.
Many travelers across Southeast Asia are staying for longer and more deeply engaging with local communities, with long-term stays of over 28 days in the region growing by more than 2.5x year-on-year in 2022.
A YouGov survey commissioned by Airbnb indicated that more than 80 percent of Malaysians polled are optimistic about the travel rebound in Southeast Asia, and 91 percent believe that the travel resurgence will benefit local communities and the national economy.
Almost four in 10 Malaysians say they are excited to travel within Southeast Asia more frequently in the future after not being able to do so for so long.
Ahead of major holidays and festivals throughout the region, there is strong travel momentum amongst Airbnb guests to travel within Southeast Asia, with guest searches for Songkran in Thailand increasing more than 310 percent year-on-year and guest searches for the March-April summer travel season in the Philippines surging almost 400 percent.
This Ramadan, guest searches increased almost 600 percent in Malaysia and over 500 percent in Indonesia.