In its new Travel Trends 2012 report, flight comparison site Skyscanner has revealed the increasing interest in Asia by British tourists, accompanied by a reciprocal increase in visitors to the UK from a number of Asian nations.

Skyscanner, which has over 15 million users a month and recently opened an office in Singapore, analysed its vast data on user flight searches to produce the report on global travel trends.

Despite flooding and civil unrest during 2011, Thailand remains immensely popular with British tourists; Bangkok was the most popular Asian destination for Brits, with the Thai capital climbing the ranks one position to eighth place compared to 2010, and the country as a whole rising one place to 13.

Of the 20 global destinations that Skyscanner identified as seeing the biggest growth in interest from UK visitors, eight of them were in Asia, with Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan topping the charts. Bangladesh and Pakistan have a long history with Britain which is home to many with Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage. For Indonesia, it’s Bali that is the big pull for travellers, with the island accounting for more than a third of all the country’s incoming tourists.

2011 also saw the 40thanniversary of Bangladeshi independence, which helped raise its profile and may have encouraged some of Britain’s 500,000 people of Bangladeshi origin to visit the country.

The Philippines and Vietnam continue to emerge as tourist destinations for British travellers, and the increased demand for Vietnam saw Vietnam Airlines launch its first direct flight from London Gatwick to Ho Chi Minh City in December, a move that will reduce travel time by up to seven hours and further increase Vietnam’s popularity in the UK.

Top 20 countries showing greatest rise in interest from UK tourists year on year

1. Estonia (+89.8%)

2. Iraq (+75.4%)

3. Cape Verde (+50.9%)

4. Bangladesh (+36.4%)

5. New Zealand (+35.4%)

6. Indonesia (+33.4%)

7. Tanzania (+32.9%)

8. Croatia (+32.7%)

9. Pakistan (+31.7%)

10. Russia (+31.6%)

11. Philippines (+31.2%)

12. Uganda (+30.5%)

13. Vietnam (+29.1%)

14. Thailand (+28.9%)

15. Ukraine (+28.8%)

16. United Arab Emirates (+28.6%)

17. Singapore (+28.3%)

18. Cambodia (+28.1%)

19. Colombia (+24.9%)

20. Australia (+23.3%)

Asians coming to the UK

Asia has seen increasing popularity from British tourists, but this popularity is reciprocated with many Asian nations now seeing an increase in travel to the UK. Indeed, of the countries seeing the biggest increase in travel to the UK, Asian countries feature as four of the top ten.

Pakistan and Indonesia are seeing the greatest rise with an increase of 93.2% in flight searches year on year, followed by Japan (+80.8%), and Singapore (+79.2%).

1. Russia (+103%)

2. Kuwait (+93.3%)

3. Pakistan (+93.2%)

3. Indonesia (+93.2%)

5. Tunisia (+92.8%)

6. Australia (+85.9%)

7. Ukraine (+81.3%)

8. Japan (+80.8%)

9. Singapore (+79.2%)

10. New Zealand (+79.1%)

While Japan is the eight biggest riser in searches to UK overall, it is the Japanese who are showing the most interest in London when it hosts the Olympics in the summer, with a 300% rise in flight searches to London during the games period. The Japanese are a keen sporting nation having hosted the summer games once and the winter games twice, and are amongst the top fifteen medal winners.

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