Agoda survey shows top reasons for travel in 2023

For most of us, reuniting with friends and family is the main reason to travel this year. According to Agoda’s Travel Trend survey, which asked travelers globally to share their top travel goals for the new year, reuniting with loved ones emerged as the top reason while wellness and food, arts & culture adventure and celebrating a milestone rounding out the top five.

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For Filipinos, it’s seeking out adventures (30%) that emerged as the top reason to travel. Reuniting with family and friends and celebrating milestones together are core to Pinoy culture and have also prevailed as top reasons to take a trip at 23% and 15%, respectively. 

Travelers from Taiwan (33%), Australia (31%) and the United States (25%) will most likely plan a holiday reunion with family or friends, but for travelers from several other countries there are other key motivations to embark on a trip. In South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore for example, it is recharging mentally and physically that tops the list, contributing to the number two spot for wellness in the “reasons to travel” ranking of Agoda’s Travel Trend survey. 

Among people from Japan (44%), Taiwan (24%) and Vietnam (23%), the biggest travel appetite is for (re)discovering food, arts & culture. In fact, a staggering 44 percent of Japanese travelers listed this as their main travel goal, the highest number for any travel objective in a single country—four times more than the Philippines, where only 11 percent are looking to travel for food, arts & culture. Adventure travel also ranks highest among travelers from Indonesia (23%).