SINGAPOREAN and Malaysian travellers select their destinations based on local food experiences, according to travel site Wego’s recent snap poll.
For almost 60 per cent of 300 Singaporean and Malaysian travellers polled, food influences their decision on where to go.
Interestingly, all male respondents said they would select travel destinations based on culinary offerings, while 74 per cent of the women denied that food made a difference to their choices.
Wego’s market development manager for Singapore and Malaysia, David Lai, said: “Clearly, Singaporean and Malaysian men consider food a pivotal and significant part of the overall travel experience.
“In our region which is already so historically and culturally diverse, we appear to have an understanding of how food represents those cultures in its own unique way, and we as travellers tend to take that with us in our exploration of the world at large.”
Leading the top culinary destination choices are Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Europe.
Age is apparently also a factor when it comes to food tourism. Almost all of those over the age of 35, which made up 51 per cent of the respondents, said they would holiday based on food.
“Travellers under the age of 34 are not surprisingly driven by other factors to travel, although 15 per cent of those between 25 and 34 did say that food could be a factor in their choices,” said Lai.
