SA wants to jet off to a tropical island or Mars, according to Google

Most of us have become intimately acquainted with the concept of “cabin fever” since Covid set up camp in SA. Yet, despite having been largely housebound for a good chunk of 2020, we haven’t stopped wistfully goggling our dream destinations.

Where do we want to go? According to Google’s 2020 Year in Search report, many of us would like to escape to an island paradise outside Mzansi.

Our collective internet searches revealed that Mauritius was the place we were most interested in “taking a trip to”.

This East African island topped the list of the 10 most searched queries of this nature, which was dominated by tropical escapes such as Jamaica, Hawaii, Mozambique and Zanzibar.

That said, many of us had our sights set on a balmy locale closer to home, with Durban ranking second on the list.

Asia was another popular choice with three countries  — Bali, Thailand and Singapore — in the top 10.

Others, it seems, have had enough of Earth altogether, with “trip to Mars” coming in at number 6.

The top 10 trending travel searches for 2020, according to Google:

1. Trip to Mauritius
2. Trip to Durban
3. Trip to Thailand
4. Trip to Mozambique
5. Trip to Hawaii
6. Trip to Mars
7. Trip to Singapore
8. Trip to Bali
9. Trip to Jamaica
10. Trip to Zanzibar