It’s no surprise that travel-related searches increased significantly in 2022 as more locations reopened and dropped Covid-related regulations like mandatory testing.
Among the data released by the tech company is a list of the top 10 trending destinations on its online flight booking search service Google Flights, which provides information about where Americans are looking to travel to. There is a distinction between “most searched” and “top trending,” which is an important fact to understand about this data. According to a Google official, “trending” questions are those that experienced a significant traffic increase over a sustained time in 2022 as compared to 2021.
London, Paris, Rome, and Lisbon are four of the top ten locations looked for by US-based Google Flights users. Europe, which experienced a resurgent summer travel season this year, also has four of the top ten locations. American vacationers flocked back to Europe in record numbers, particularly to France, where they were credited with “saving” the nation’s summer vacation season. Lisbon’s popularity may just be because it’s a pleasant destination for vacations, but it’s possible that some of the searches were for one-way tickets. Portugal has a variety of visas that make relocating there reasonably simple for Americans and other non-citizens of the European Union; in reality, Madonna has resided in Lisbon.
Overall, Asian nations reopened much more slowly than their European counterparts. As a result, the Asia-Pacific area will no longer be the largest travel region in the globe this year. That may account for why Google Flights’ trending list ranked Ho Chi Minh City highly. Early in 2022, Vietnam reopened to tourists while other historically well-liked nations like Japan and China remained closed. It also helps that a lot of new hotels are emerging in well-known locations like Phu Quoc and Ke Ga Bay, both of which are in the south of the country and reachable from Ho Chi Minh City. Mumbai and New Delhi, India’s two major hubs, also appeared on the US Google Flights list.
On October 1, Canada lifted the last of its Covid-related travel restrictions, and since then, searches in the US have increased. Toronto was ranked fifth and Vancouver was ninth on the Google Flights trending list. The massive surge of tourists that arrived in Toronto, however, earlier this year ended up on a separate, less illustrious list: Pearson Airport was ranked the worst in the world for airline delays and cancellations during the busiest summer months. The list of the top ten locations in the US for 2022 according to Google Flights trending searches are as follows:
- London, UK
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Paris, France
- New Delhi, India
- Toronto, Canada
- Rome, Italy
- Mumbai, India
- Vancouver, Canada
- Lisbon, Portugal
- New York, NY
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