Chiang Mai tops Asia-Pacific autumn flight booking growth
Bookings rose 84.3% year-on-year, while mainland Chinese travellers accounted for much of the demand across the five leading cities.
Thailand's Chiang Mai recorded the largest year-on-year increase in autumn flight bookings among Asia-Pacific cities, with growth of 84.3%, figures from online travel company Trip.com Group showed.
Surabaya in Indonesia ranked second with a rise of 63.1%, followed by Busan in South Korea at 62.7%. Bookings for Manila increased by 55.1%, while Jakarta registered growth of 38.1%.
Mainland Chinese travellers made up much of the bookings for all five destinations. Trip.com linked the increases to interest in lower-cost travel nearer home, alongside a desire to visit a broader range of places.
Generation Z had the fastest flight booking growth across the company's autumn figures. In a separate forecast for China's Golden Week holiday, Trip.com identified rising interest in Chiang Mai among travellers aged 18-24, who were increasingly drawn to nature and places outside major tourism centres.
The northern Thai city's attractions include mountain scenery, street markets and Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a pagoda on a hillside above Chiang Mai.
