Do Malaysians Book Their Travels Well In Advance?

Do Malaysians Book Their Travels Well In Advance? - So do Malaysians make their plans way in advance? Some might say we are a “last-minute” kind of nation. A recent survey seems to corroborate that impression of us.

Well it’s not quite “last-minute” agoda.com found that Malaysian travellers planned and booked their holidays less than a month (24.4 days) prior to travelling on average. This ranked among the least forward planning travellers in the world, fifth from last in fact.

The ones who planned the least ahead were the Saudi Arabians at 16.9 days, followed by Indonesians (18), Vietnamese (18.7) and India (21.7).

The most organised and who booked the longest in advance to their travel dates are the Hong Kongers (for the second year running) at 49.4 days. They are followed by the Russians at 46.4, Australians (44.3), Taiwanese (43.3) and the British (37.2).

World-leading accommodation site, agoda.com, released its findings around holiday booking trends in Asia. The survey revealed that Malaysian, ranking amongst the least forward planning travellers in the world.

“Our research demonstrates that across the globe, the trend is shifting to more advanced booking, with an average global increase of two days lead-time in booking compared to the previous year. This is somewhat surprising, given that we are portrayed as living in an age of ‘instant gratification’”, said agoda.com global director brand and communications, Andy Edwards.

When it comes to overseas versus domestic travel, 75% of Malaysians said they prefer to spend their time exploring local holiday destinations rather than travel overseas. Singapore and HK take the unrivalled joint lead for overseas holiday travel due to country size, with nearly all bookings (99%) being outbound. Britain takes third place, with 38% of hotel bookings outbound, and 62% booked domestically.

Surprisingly, in the United States, just 8% of all hotel bookings support international travel, with 92% supporting domestic travel. In China, some 98% of the nation’s bookings are placed domestically – demonstrating the massive potential of outbound travel in both these highly populated, powerhouse markets.

The study compared hotel bookings made by agoda travellers from 2015 to 2016.