Booking.com Names 'Destination Dupes' for Summer's Most Crowded Hotspots

Demand is quietly shifting away from the world's most crowded summer destinations, and Booking.com is now actively steering travelers toward the alternatives. The platform has published a list of "destination dupes," lesser-known places it says capture the spirit of iconic hotspots without the crowds.

The numbers behind the push are worth attention. According to Booking.com research, 29% of travelers are interested in alternative destinations that offer a similar experience to well-known locations. Among travelers looking to explore less-crowded places, 44% say their motivation is to avoid contributing to overtourism. Cost and the search for more authentic experiences round out the reasons.

The swaps themselves span three continents. Booking.com suggests Paros instead of Santorini, pointing to the same whitewashed Cycladic architecture and blue-domed churches just 80 kilometres away, with more space and lower pressure. Favignana, off Sicily's west coast, is positioned as the quieter Ibiza. Hilton Head Island in South Carolina stands in for the Hamptons. Siargao in the Philippines is offered as the untamed alternative to Bali, and Santa Teresa in Costa Rica as the more rugged answer to Tulum. Each recommendation comes with a featured property, from a 35-room boutique hotel in Parikia to a beachfront resort on Santa Teresa Beach.

For operators, the interesting part is not the specific list but what it signals about distribution. When the largest OTA in the world publishes editorial content nudging travelers from Santorini to Paros, it is effectively redirecting demand toward secondary markets. Properties in those markets get visibility they could rarely buy themselves. Operators in the over-touristed originals, meanwhile, are watching their platform partner market against their destination, a tension that is likely to grow as overtourism stays high on the political agenda in destinations like the Greek islands and Bali.

It is worth keeping the framing in perspective. This is a marketing piece built around curated property picks, not a demand report, and the survey figures come from two separate global studies, one polling 27,713 travelers in 2024 and another polling 32,500 in early 2026. The 29% figure describes interest, not bookings.

Still, the direction of travel is consistent with what the industry has seen all year: travelers, especially younger ones, increasingly treat the crowded icon destinations as a starting point for research rather than the final answer. Operators in credible "dupe" markets can lean into that by referencing the comparison in their own positioning. Operators in the originals may want to double down on what a dupe cannot copy, whether that is a specific view, a caldera or simple proximity to the real thing.