All male respondents in a snap poll of 300 Singaporean and Malaysian travellers by metasearch site, Wego, said they pick their destinations based on local food experiences, while only 26% of women indicated they would do the same.

“Clearly Singaporean and Malaysian men consider food a pivotal and significant part of the overall travel experience,” said David Lai, Wego’s market development manager for Singapore and Malaysia.

“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,” he added.

Leading the top culinary destination choices are Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Europe.

“All of these destinations are culturally impressive in themselves but also they have their own very distinctive food,” Lai added.

The report also revealed age having an influence on holiday choices. Almost all the respondents aged over 35 (51%) said they would holiday based on food. Those 34 and younger, however, are driven by other factors to travel. (see infographic below for details).

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