By: Staff Writer
May 14, 2021
A travel search engine executive says that Caribbean destinations are in the top five most researched queries for American travellers and demand will only increase this year.
Summer travel searches are heating up, with searches up as much as 70 percent month over month (as of the last seven days). As pent-up demand for travel takes flight, KAYAK is releasing its ‘Return to Travel’ Hacker Guide focused on where to go as restrictions ease. Whether you’ve been living the digital nomad lifestyle for the last year or it’s your first trip since the pandemic started, KAYAK’s 2021 Travel Hacker Guide aims to help you navigate where to go, what’s open and how to craft that perfect out-of-office message for some much-needed time away.
Key highlights from this year’s guide include a special feature on the Caribbean. The Caribbean is calling all Vaxicationers. Looking at the last seven days, the Caribbean is showing great signs of recovery with travel search interest down only 16 percent compared to the same in 2019, likely due to eased restrictions for vaccinated U.S. travelers announced earlier than most places. In fact, out of the top 10 most searched for destinations open to U.S. tourists, five are within the Caribbean including Cancun, Punta Cana, Montego Bay, Aruba and The Bahamas.
Matt Clarke, vice president of marketing for North America for KAYAK, in an email response to Caribbean Magazine Plus’s queries on the rankings, said: The Caribbean is continuing to see increased demand with search interest down only 14 percent (already 2 percent better than last week when the Return to Travel Hacker Guide was released) compared to the same time period in 2019 (based on searches from May 5-11, 2021). With demand improving, prices are also seeing an increase with the average flight price up nearly 12 percent month on month.
“The Caribbean is no doubt one of the most popular destinations for U.S. travelers right now who are eager to make up for their delayed vacations last year,” said Mr Clarke. He added: “We expect both demand and prices to increase as the summer season continues and more people become comfortable traveling again.”
Below are also the 10 most popular Caribbean destinations based on search volume over the past 7 days.
1. San Juan, Puerto Rico
2. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
3. Montego Bay, Jamaica
4. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
5. St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
6. Nassau, Bahamas
7. Oranjested, Aruba
8. Santiago, Dominican Republic
9. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos
10. Simpson Bay, St. Maarten
Solo travellers are also headed to South America. Despite the pandemic, interest in solo travel is still top of mind for many with 68 percent of searches for solo travel in the first three months of 2021, particularly to South America. This is likely due to eased restrictions and wallet friendly airfare prices, which are down 14 percent over the last 7 days (4.27 – 5.3) compared to the same time period in 2019 – the cheapest of any region. Cartagena, Lima and Medellin in particular are attracting the largest number of solo travellers with at least 80 percent of flight searches for one person to all three cities.
Group travel is also booming says KAYAK and that they see trends in American travel continually ratcheting up as Americans get vaccinated en-masse.