If you want to know where people traveled this summer, those numbers aren’t particularly hard to find.
Airlines know how many passengers they carried. Hotels know how many rooms they filled. Tourism boards spend plenty of time counting visitors.
All of those numbers tell us where people went. Award searches tell us something different. They show where people were thinking about going next.
PointsYeah analyzed millions of award searches made between June 1 and August 15, 2026, to see which routes travelers searched most often. Not every search turns into a trip, of course. But in the aggregate, they offer a fascinating snapshot of what travelers had on their minds this summer.
And one part of the world appeared far more often than anywhere else.
Where Travelers Were Searching This Summer
Here are the 20 routes that appeared most often in award searches made through PointsYeah this summer.
| Ranking | Route |
|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles (LAX) → Tokyo (TYO) |
| 2 | New York City (NYC) → Tel Aviv (TLV) |
| 3 | San Francisco (SFO) → Tokyo (TYO) |
| 4 | New York City (NYC) → Tokyo (TYO) |
| 5 | Seattle (SEA) → Tokyo (TYO) |
| 6 | San Francisco (SFO) → Taipei (TPE) |
| 7 | Los Angeles (LAX) → Taipei (TPE) |
| 8 | Chicago (ORD) → Tokyo (TYO) |
| 9 | London (LON) → New York City (NYC) |
| 10 | Seoul (ICN) → Los Angeles (LAX) |
| 11 | Athens (ATH) → New York City (NYC) |
| 12 | Hong Kong (HKG) → San Francisco (SFO) |
| 13 | Hong Kong (HKG) → Los Angeles (LAX) |
| 14 | Seattle (SEA) → Taipei (TPE) |
| 15 | New York City (NYC) → Taipei (TPE) |
| 16 | Seoul (ICN) → San Francisco (SFO) |
| 17 | Seoul (ICN) → Seattle (SEA) |
| 18 | Hong Kong (HKG) → New York City (NYC) |
| 19 | Delhi (DEL) → San Francisco (SFO) |
| 20 | Paris (CDG) → Los Angeles (LAX) |
It doesn’t take much studying to spot the pattern.
Tokyo Is Extremely Popular
Tokyo appears five times in the top 20, more than any other destination.
The searches came from across the U.S.: Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), New York City (NYC), Seattle (SEA), and Chicago (ORD).
Different starting points, same destination.
Japan’s popularity isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. International visitors have returned in enormous numbers in recent years. For Americans, increased airline capacity across the Pacific has also made the country easier to reach from more cities.
Then there are the reasons that don’t fit neatly into an airline schedule. The favorable exchange rate. The food. The rail network. The mix of enormous cities, smaller towns, culture, and nature that makes it relatively easy to build several very different trips around one country.
For some, Japan has also become less of a once-in-a-lifetime destination and more of a place worth returning to.
And the search patterns suggest plenty are still trying to get there.
Japan Was Only Part of the Story
Fourteen of the 20 most-searched routes connected North America with destinations in Asia.
Taipei appears four times. Seoul and Hong Kong each appear three times. Delhi makes the list as well. Just beyond the top 20 were searches involving Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, and other destinations throughout the region.
That’s a much bigger story than Japan alone.
There isn’t one clear-cut type of trip tying those places together, either. Some are enormous business and aviation hubs. Some draw travelers for food and history. Others have become popular jumping-off points for exploring elsewhere in the region.
What they have in common is that travelers were repeatedly looking across the Pacific.
Europe Was Surprisingly Quiet
The absence that stands out most is Europe.
Summer is traditionally one of the busiest times of year for transatlantic travel, yet only three European cities pop up among the top 20 routes: London, Athens, and Paris.
That doesn’t mean travelers weren’t interested in Europe. This isn’t a measure of total visitors, tickets sold, or even completed award bookings. It’s a ranking of searches made through PointsYeah.
But still, the contrast is pretty remarkable. While Asian destinations occupy most of the table, much of Europe is nowhere to be found.
Then there’s the route sitting at No. 2.
New York City (NYC) to Tel Aviv (TLV) ranks behind only Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo, placing it ahead of every other route involving Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong, or Europe.
It’s the most notable outlier in the top 20.
Searches Capture the Trip Before the Trip
Award searches aren’t bookings.
Someone can search Tokyo today, Paris tomorrow, and Bangkok the day after that. The award seats they find might disappear. Their dates might change. They may decide the trip is too expensive or get cold feet and go somewhere else.
But that uncertainty is also what makes the data interesting.
Passenger statistics capture travelers after they’ve made their decisions. Search data catches them earlier, while they’re still considering all the possibilities.
For this stretch of summer, those possibilities skewed heavily toward Asia. Eventually, that’ll change.
Holiday travel will replace summer vacations. Ski destinations will start appearing more frequently. Before long, travelers will be searching for spring break and summer 2027. And we’ll soon get another look at where everyone wants to go next.
Where to Next?
If there’s one practical takeaway from the rankings, it’s that plenty of other travelers may be looking for the same trip you are.
Award availability can change quickly, particularly around busy travel periods. Searching earlier gives you more time to compare dates, airports, and programs before committing to a trip.
And if a destination on this list has you thinking about somewhere new, that’s probably reason enough to take a look.
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