Wego, the travel metasearch site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East, recently revealed the results of a study showing just how much travellers are torn between seeing their own country first, and then the rest of the world. Over 1,000 respondents from Wego’s core markets in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, India and Australia participated in the survey which asked whether you should see your own country first before travelling internationally. Asian countries, on the most part, felt a strong responsibility in seeing their own countries prior to venturing abroad.
The majority of responses gathered from Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia (80 percent) felt that their own countries were so culturally diverse that it was generally unnecessary to travel beyond their own borders to experience others. There was also a consensus that it was not possible to truly appreciate other cultures before understanding your own.
Australian’s were almost split down the middle (70 percent voted yes to travelling at home first) and passionately expressive about their thoughts on the subject. However the cost of travelling domestically in comparison to internationally, especially value options in Southeast Asia, was a big plus for the overseas vote.
“International travel providers, including airlines, are becoming increasingly competitive in today’s online environment. There are some rather inviting and accessible travel deals out there that directly challenge the domestic tourism industry,” said Joachim Holte, Chief Marketing Officer, Wego.
“We’ve witnessed firsthand at Wego Indonesia the travel evolution currently taking place in this country, as travellers are more frequently discovering the enormous variety of stunning destinations, beyond, but definitely still including, Bali,” added Graham Hills, Managing Director, Wego Indonesia.
“Interestingly there was a consistency throughout that deciding to travel abroad was fine when a great travel deal was available, but otherwise travellers are currently very much in love with their own countries and wish to explore them a lot more. Domestic flight searches over the last 12 months on Wego steadily increased in India and Australia. Overall, international flight searches account for almost double the amount of domestic searches across all of these regions,” Holte continued.
