Which regional destinations do travellers in the Asia Pacific region most want to visit?

According to a survey by Visa International released in July 2008, Singapore came second on the list of the top five "must visit" travel destinations, topped only by Australia.

The survey, which asked more than 4,500 people from nine Asia Pacific countries and territories to share their top five 'must-visit' travel destinations in the region, found that 42% of respondents wanted to visit Singapore. 65% cited Australia while 41% favoured New Zealand, 40% opted for Japan and 27% chose India.

Ms Meranda Chan, country manager, Singapore and Brunei, Visa International, said: "The findings from this new survey show that the Asia Pacific region is a popular destination for people already living in the region. This is particularly good news as tourism is a critical element of almost all economies in the region since tourism spend is estimated to be US$427 million a day in Asia Pacific."

The survey is also particularly relevant in the current economic climate when longhaul travel to Asia Pacific destinations is expected to slow down and destinations are expected to look closer to home for visitor numbers.

Singapore was the top 'must see' destination for respondents from India (76%). The island-nation was also favoured by respondents from Taiwan (29%), Korea (29%), New Zealand (25%) and Japan (23%).

Between 17 March and 9 April 2008, Nielsen conducted about 4,500 online and door-to-door interviews on behalf of Visa with people aged 18 years and above from nine countries and territories (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and India) in an effort to measure their travel intentions in the future. For each market, quotas were set by key demographic variables to ensure the sample was representative of the general population.

As the third overall 'must-see' destination for Asia Pacific audiences, New Zealand was popular with Malaysians (64%), Japanese (45%) and New Zealanders (28%).

A majority of Australian respondents (59%) ranked New Zealand as their top 'must-see' destination, while a similar majority of New Zealanders (60%) ranked Australia as their top 'must-see' destination.

Japan , the fourth overall 'must-see' destination across all respondents, was the top choice for Hong Kong (77%), Taiwan (78%) and Singapore (64%). 62% of those surveyed in Korea listed Japan as their second 'must-see' destination, after Australia.

India was the fifth overall 'must-see' place for Asia Pacific audiences. Interestingly, it was domestic tourism that proved the big draw with more than half of the Indian respondents expressing interest in exploring the tourist attractions of their own country.