TOKYO, Jan 8 — Japan has emerged the most popular vacation destination in 2015 for travellers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China in a poll of travel habits in Asia-Pacific.

In a new survey by Travelzoo, which publishes travel deals around the world, 56 per cent of Taiwanese respondents said they plan to visit Japan in 2015.

Nearly half of travellers from Hong Kong (49 per cent) also said they have their travel sights booked on Japan, as did 40 per cent of respondents from mainland China.

For the survey, 4,300 Travelzoo members in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan were polled in November last year.

Australians, it seems, will explore their own country this year with 50 per cent of respondents naming Oz as their top vacation destination.

And the US ranked the top destination in 2015 for Japanese travellers.

The survey also revealed that the Chinese will travel the most, taking an average of 6.4 leisure trips in 2015 and spending an average of US$8,558 (RM 30534.94).

And while Australian members will travel the least, taking 3.8 trips this year, they will spend the most, dishing out US$10,483 on travel this year.

That could be explained by the fact that the US and the UK are the second and third most popular destinations—expensive long-haul trips for Aussies down under.

Here’s the breakdown of top destinations by markets:

Australia Australia 50 per cent USA 34 per cent UK 29 per cent

Japan USA 38 per cent Japan 28 per cent Italy 22 per cent

China Japan 40 per cent USA 31per cent New Zealand 27 per cent

Hong Kong Japan 49 per cent Australia 31 per cent South Korea 28 per cent

Taiwan Japan 56 per cent Switzerland 22 per cent Italy 20per cent — AFP-Relaxnews