Expedia: Top 2024 travel destinations and more affordable 'dupes' based on TV, movies

As jet setters look to book next year's vacation, Expedia Group predicts travellers will continue to be inspired by their favourite TV shows and movies.

According to Expedia's "Unpack ’24" report, based on a survey of 20,000 travellers across North and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific (conducted online between Sept. 12 and Oct. 5), one in four respondents indicated that TV and films are more influential for their travel plans than they were before.

Specifically TV shows were identified as being even more influential than Instagram, TikTok and podcasts.

The top entertainment-inspired destinations for 2024, looking at trends from Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, are:

• Thailand: The White Lotus Season 3

• Romania: Wednesday

• Malta: Gladiator 2

• Paris: Emily in Paris

• Scottish highlands: Outlander

• London, Bath and Windsor, U.K.: Bridgerton and The Crown

• Korea: Squid Game

• Florida Keys & Bahamas: Bad Monkey

• Australia: Faraway Downs and Furiosa

• Greece: Argylle

When the first two seasons of HBO's The White Lotus were released, that drove a 300 per cent demand in travel to Hawaii and Sicily.

Expedia saw a 150 per cent increase in travel searches to Romania when Wednesday premiered on Netflix, and a 200 per cent increase in searches to Paris after each season of Emily In Paris landed on the streaming site.

Searches for Norway increased by more than 65 per cent when the final season of Succession was released.

But TV shows and movies aren't the only kinds of entertainment attracting travellers. About 70 per cent of survey respondents said they are more likely to travel to a concert outside their own home city or town, with over 40 per cent saying they’d used it as an excuse to visit a new destination.

'Dupe' travel destination trend

"Dupes" are just for makeup products, clothing and accessories anymore.

If you're hoping to enjoy the fun in some of the trendiest destinations, but you need to keep to a budget or you're looking to branch out a bit, affordable and lesser travelled alternatives, or "dupe" travel destinations, will also be a trend going into 2024.

Sometimes these locations appeal to travellers that want something more unexpected, other destinations will be more enticing due to the cost savings.

The following "dupe" destinations have seen an uptick in searches over the past year, based on Expedia's global flight data from Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2023:

• Taipei: Dupe for Seoul

• Pattaya: Dupe for Bangkok

• Paros: Dupe for Santorini

• Curaçao: Dupe for St. Martin

• Perth: Dupe for Sydney

• Liverpool: Dupe for London

• Palermo: Dupe for Lisbon

• Québec City: Dupe for Geneva

• Sapporo: Dupe for Zermatt

• Memphis: Dupe for Nashville

For Memphis in particular, it's also a great way to experience some of the places featured in Sofia Coppola's latest movie Priscilla, particularly walking the ground of Graceland (even if it was recreated for the film on soundstages in Toronto).