Bangkok is top destination for Asia-Pacific online bookings

Bangkok is top destination for Asia-Pacific online bookings

Bangkok remains the top destination for Asia-Pacific travellers
who book flights and hotel rooms online, followed by Hong Kong
and Singapore, a survey released on Tuesday showed.

The Indonesian resort island of Bali also kept its position as
one of the top 10 destinations for the second consecutive quarter
in the survey carried out by ZUJI, a leading online travel portal
in the region.

The Indonesian capital Jakarta was in fourth place, followed
by Kuala Lumpur and London.

Bali was the seventh most popular destination, trailed by
Taipei, Los Angeles and Colombo, Sri Lanka, which rounded up the
top 10 list.

Among Australians who booked their travel online, Bali was a
"top five" destination", two years after the devastating
terrorist bomb attack on the resort that killed 202 people, 88 of
them Australian holiday-makers.

The survey on demographic and booking trends in the Asia-
Pacific covered the three months to September.

It said 67 percent of those who booked online said they will
take at least one business trip this year and an average 15
percent expect to travel for business six more times, partly due
to the emergence of budget carriers.

"ZUJI predicts the current online user group will further
differentiate during the next 12 months -- driven in part by the
anticipated proliferation of low cost carrier airlines across the
Asia Pacific region, bringing new consumer segments online," the
survey said.

Among the survey's significant findings is the rise in the
usage of electronic air tickets. In the September quarter survey,
30 percent of tickets issued were electronic, up from 15 percent
during the first quarter.

Ninety-seven percent of travel transactions were paid using
credit cards.

ZUJI is a joint venture between 15 major Asia Pacific airlines
and Travelocity, an international web-based travel portal. -- AFP