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Sure, social media can give us some pretty good insight into what destinations are trending right now, but there’s nothing wrong with good old-fashioned booking data, is there?
That’s exactly what Booking.com has utilised to suss out which destinations are going to be big in the year ahead. Using data from between Aug 1 and Oct 31 2024 for stays between Dec 1 and Feb 28, 2025, the platform has unveiled a list of places where searches have increased the most year-on-year in the UK.
And topping the list, it’s João Pessoa, a port city in northeastern Brazil which has some pretty dazzling beaches, where searches soared by 126 percent. The city is mostly known for its production of fabrics and seaweed products, but we’d recommend hitting up beaches such as Cabo Brando and Praia de Tambaú.
In second place it’s Tromsø, northern Norway’s largest city which is a go-to stargazing and Northern Light hot spot, and interest here has increased by a whopping 122 percent. In third place? It’s Sanya, a gorgeous beach destination on Hainan Island in China, and that’s attracted an 85 percent jump in searches.
The top 10 trending destinations for 2025, according to Booking.com
- João Pessoa, Brazil
- Tromsø, Norway
- Sanya, China
- Trieste, Italy
- San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
- Houston, USA
- Naha, Okinawa, Japan
- Villajoyosa, Spain
- Tignes, France
- Willemstad, Curaçao
Looking to the year ahead
Lonely Planet, National Geographic, and Condé Nast Traveller have each published their lists of the best places to travel to in 2025 recently, but why not have a gander of our picks for the world’s most underrated destinations?
Did you see that this popular European tourist attraction is capping its visitor numbers?
Plus: This beautiful country was just crowned 2025’s ‘destination of the year’ by Travel + Leisure.
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