Boost for travel agents as Race Across the World grips viewers

A scene from series four, which attracted a million more viewers than the previous series. Photograph: Studio Lambert/BBC

No celebrities, no luxuries and a miserly £20,000 in prize money. On paper the BBC One series Race Across the World never looked like a hit.

And yet the travel programme, in which backpackers battle across distant sections of the planet, is now into its fourth season with audiences rising faster than a tuk-tuk driver can get you down Bangkok’s Khao San Road.

This time 5.5 million viewers have watched five two-person teams head off from Sapporo in northern Japan en route to the island of Lombok in Indonesia. That is almost a million more viewers than series three attracted, figures that are also setting records in travel companies that serve east Asia.

“Bookings for Japan are up 75%,” says James Mundy from the Inside Travel Group. “People were coming into our office to book the day after the first episode aired.” The company, which specialises in cultural engagement and off-the-beaten-track locations, has seen other countries benefit. “After Korea featured in the second show,” says Mundy, “bookings rose by 46%.”

Other travel operators are seeing the boost. “When the show started we saw a 30% increase in Japan searches,” says Jo Fairweather from Much Better Adventures, pointing out that the country’s unique mix of ancient traditions, pristine wilderness and futuristic cities is hugely attractive. Responsible Travel and Trailfinders have experienced similar rises.

It is not only Race Across the World that is exerting influence. Seamus McCauley, head of public affairs at travel company Holiday Extras has noticed the increasing role of television and film series in vacation choices.

“Season two of White Lotus boosted Italy, Malta is getting more attention through Gladiator 2 – television really can make large shifts in what’s fashionable.”

Those big-buck blockbusters are far from Race Across the World’s penny-pinching frugality, but therein lies its charm: limited cash means contestants cannot simply leap into a taxi, and certainly not on a plane – that’s forbidden. Not only that, phones and credit cards are taken away.

For older viewers it looks like student travel circa 1980. Cash is eked out, locals consulted, leading to fascinating diversions. Mother and daughter Eugenie and Isabel, whose relationship can be tense, do a memorable homestay in a Cambodian floating village.

Frequently the friendliness is matched by the yawning cultural chasm: 20-year-old Owen baffles a Shinto priest with a breezy, “Chill out”. Contestants dig deep and learn fast.

The result is a glimpse into the kind of travel that many yearn for: genuine adventures where strangers turn out to be good people and travellers go home with compelling stories to tell.