It was a turbulent summer outside of the US and, seeing that we are a travel company, we wanted to know how this impacted American travelers.
Hipmunk analyzed the 150 most-searched international destinations for US travelers and found that despite the unrest, interest in travel abroad remained strong, and has even increased. What’s changed, however, are the destinations of interest: American vacations are more exotic than ever.
International searches for US travelers increased 32 percent as a share on Hipmunk this summer (searches that were run in either June, July, and through August 10) over last year, rising from 29 percent in 2015 to 36 percent in 2016.
Within the top 20 most-searched international destinations for US travelers this summer, many saw year-over-year declines. So while these cities still have a large search volume, they are seeing less interest (7 percent) than last year.
So if many of the most-searched locations are seeing declines, where are Americans interested in visiting if not to the usual destination suspects?
Of the 150 most popular, here are the top 10 destinations that saw the largest bump:
The 10 biggest losers? Unsurprisingly, the majority of the cities are undergoing unrest or have been targeted in terrorist attacks, such as San Juan, PR; Istanbul, TU; and Brussels, BE.
Last, Asia and Southeast Asia continue to capture the interest of American travelers, driving strong year-over-year numbers as a share of Hipmunk international travel search.
Several cities in Asia also made our overall top 10 list. And Southeast Asia saw an 11 percent increase in search share, while Western Europe only saw 2 percent.
So tell us, where do you want to go?
Methodology: Hipmunk analyzed travel searches departing from the US and arriving in international destinations that were run in June, July, and through August 10, 2016, and in June, July, and through August 10, 2015. All percentages are presented a share of all US-origination Hipmunk searches to international destinations.