While Airbnb might be a cancer to areas affected by housing affordability and availability problems (see Forbes, Harvard Business Review), they do get some good travel data in which to make fun lists that shows Sydney being the second most popular destination for tourists in the world… at least for Airbnb users. (I wonder if this has any influence on Sydney unit rents jumping up 18.6% in 12 months?).
Australia actually has a few entries in the list with Melbourne coming in 3rd and Perth making their debut in the top 10 in 9th. But our neighbours across the way, New Zealand, also did quite well with Auckland coming 4th and Queenstown coming 6th.
These results were measured by Airbnb based on findings on search volumes on the platform over the course of 2022.
The complete top 10 is as follows:
- Malaga, Spain
- Sydney, Australia
- Melbourne, Australia
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Queenstown, New Zealand
- Florianópolis, Brazil
- Porto Seguro, Brazil
- Perth, Australia
- Salvador, Brazil
Keep in mind, these are just according to listings on Airbnb, when you compare it to American Express Travel’s 2023 Trending Destinations, the list looks quite different. This list was compiled from data of global American Express Card Member travel reservations between 2019 and 2022.
They didn’t rank the destinations; they merely provided the top 10 in no particular order:
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Florida Keys, USA
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Montenegro
- Paris, France
- Sydney, Australia
- Woodstock, Vermont
- Yakuve Island, Fiji
The only thing that remains the same is Sydney. So really, Airbnb’s list is just telling us the top 10 cities with the most Airbnb listings rather than the actual most popular places to travel. The same goes for the American Express list, it merely tells us the list of destinations prized by people with American Express cards looking for a reason to justify them owning an American Express card (come on, most cafés don’t even accept it, what’s the point?).
For more, check out which country has the most powerful passport in 2023.
