Singapore is amongst the Top 5 destinations for travellers booking hotels in Asia Pacific online - using Travelocity.com in North America (3rd), and Lastminute.com in the United Kingdom (4th).

For flight bookings too, Singapore featured amongst the ’Top-3’ destinations as booked on all ZUJI sites.

The findings are based on the latest Online Travel Report for Q2 2007, released today by ZUJI Singapore.  The report tracks online travelling trends for flight, hotel and other bookings on a quarterly basis, for ZUJI online travel sites.

“Singaporeans are using our site to find a wide range of hotel choices, and seem to be booking on behalf of colleagues, friends and relatives visiting Singapore for business or pleasure. Importantly though, Singapore is also a very popular destination for overseas travellers, even falling ahead of places like Sydney for North American travellers,” said Mr Philip Ho, General Manager, ZUJI Singapore.

When it comes to flight booking patterns, according to the report travellers based in Singapore are showing a preference for short haul to destinations close to home, for short stays. 60% of overseas trips booked on the Singapore site in Q2 2007 were for trips of a week or less.

Hong Kong came out tops in the overall rankings for flight and hotel bookings made on ZUJI Singapore, and Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali are Top-20 flight destinations booked on ZUJI Singapore. Emerging favourites are Ho Chi Minh and Penang, also relatively close to home. Only two of the Top-20 flight destinations booked on ZUJI Singapore were outside Asia – these being London and Paris.

The travel report also reflected an all time high figure for online travel purchases, with 88% of travel booking payment made online on ZUJI Singapore in Q2 2007 as compared to 66% in Q2 2006. At the same time, 73% of all international tickets issues by ZUJI Singapore were e-tickets, compared to just 50% in Q2 2006.

“Singapore is a fantastic destination for travellers, and we’re seeing this in the booking statistics. And ZUJI Singapore is a place that Singaporeans can book travel safely, securely and conveniently for hotels, flight and many other travel services.  Whether it’s travelling closer to home or crossing the seven seas, there is a wide choice of flights and hotels at ZUJI to suit every pocket,” added Mr Ho.

Other key trends observed in hotel and flight bookings on ZUJI include:

• Travellers based in Singapore generally allow less lead time to book their flights and hotels than most Asia Pacific travellers. 40% of Singapore-based travellers booked their hotels during the same week as check-in.
• 65% of travellers based in Singapore went solo.
• 66% of bookings made in Q2 2007 were made by men.
• The percentage of one-night stays is gradually dropping. In Q2 2006, 30% of hotel bookings made on ZUJI Singapore were for one-night stays as compared to 24% in Q2 2007.
• In Singapore, 27% of flights were booked within the same week as travel during Q2 2007. This is higher than the regional average of 21%, and the highest percentage of any one ZUJI country.