KAYAK reveals travel’s 2019 ‘Top of the Pops’

Metasearch site reveals most popular destinations, destinations with the largest increase in search volume and cheapest destinations

Flight metasearch site KAYAK has revealed some key trends it has seen in 2019 as the travel industry looks to what will be hot for 2020.

The Booking Holdings-owned site looked at the most popular destinations, the destinations that saw the largest increase in search volume and the cheapest destinations to fly to.

Sophie Gough, senior director at KAYAK EMEA, said: “The end of the year provides a great opportunity to slow down and reflect on travel trends.

“Aside from favourites, like New York and Bangkok, it’s exciting to see Brits are venturing further off the beaten track to countries like Uzbekistan.

“For up-and-coming destinations it can be more difficult to find information and travel tips, which is where our new feature KAYAK Guides can help, providing the perfect way to plan, store and share travel experiences.”

KAYAK’s top ten list of most popular destinations for Brits may not include many surprises with the ever-popular New York topping the charts.

Bangkok made it a top two for long-haul while Amsterdam and Barcelona were the only two short-haul destinations in the top five, a trend that is expected to continue into 2020.

While the top 10 most popular destinations may not have included many surprises the top ten trending destinations based on flight search volume was a real eye opener.

The Caribbean did particularly well, taking three of the top five spots with Trinidad & Tobago topping the lot.

But the recently opened up central Asian country of Uzbekistan claimed third spot behind another former Soviet republic Azerbaijan.

Jordan was trending in seventh, and its capital Amman was the top trending city, with searches up by 54% compared to 2018.

KAYAK also looked at the cost of travelling with its cheapest cities to fly to list, headed by the Irish capital Dublin with an average return price of £66.

The Scandinavian cities of Copenhagen and Oslo were close behind although they are among the most expensive in Europe when it comes to on-the-ground costs.

Copenhagen was also the city that had the biggest decrease in flight prices year on year, down 12% compared to 2018.

The top non-European destination was Marrakesh in Morocco. Turkey was found to offer great deals with flights to Antalya, Istanbul and Dalaman all under £300.

Flights costs to San Francisco are down 8% this year compared to last making it the eighth cheapest city to fly to outside of Europe.