Just back from ITB Asia, the region’s leading travel trade show, in Singapore, Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman assesses 10 hot topics in Asian tourism.
1) Entice the Dragon. China’s tourism juggernaut is transforming the travel industry from top to bottom. And not just because of its 140 million outbound travellers and 4.5 billion domestic trips this year. Chinese travel/tech leaders, such as Ctrip, Alipay, Meituan-Dianping, WeChat and Mobike, are globalising their services at a rapid clip, and partnering with hotel brands, retailers and banks to create data-driven products. Meanwhile, tourism providers worldwide are reframing their approach to meet the diversifying demands of Chinese vacationers. A Check-in Asia area of specialty for over a decade, evolution continues to be the new normal in the world’s most dynamic travel market.
2) Emerging India. The planet’s second-fastest-growing outbound market is steered by similar socio-economic drivers as China, but garners less global face-time. That’s changing. Around 20 million Indians will travel overseas in 2017, and the UNWTO predicts 50 million per year by 2020 (China achieved this figure in 2010, albeit bolstered by visits to Hong Kong and Macau). The average propensity to spend of Indian holidaymakers is impressive, domestic travel is booming, the LCC sector is expanding and thriving outbound niches range from destination weddings to extended family travel and MICE.
3) All Access Africa. Improved air access allied with rapidly improving hotel infrastructure and tourism services imbued the ITB Asia presence of several African nations with fresh confidence. African tourism providers are seeking to appeal to Asian travellers’ growing appetite for locations beyond the ordinary. Engaging presentations showcasing the desert pyramids of Sudan, wildlife migrations in Kenya and Tanzania, the ‘Smoke that Thunders’ of Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls and helicopter tours over Cape Point in South Africa drew large crowds of travel buyers and media.
4) Diversity of Destinations. Surging demand for overseas travel combined with shifting demographics make China, India and South East Asia honeypots for destination marketers. Hence, ITB Asia (which in 2017 also introduced a China-focused trade show in Shanghai) attracted tour operators and DMCs from newly on-radar nations, such as Albania, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Highly visible visitor bureau presences from Norway, Russia, Thailand and Indonesia sat alongside smaller stagings by Tunisia, Guam and Solomon Islands. Shifting trade engagement strategies (and ITB Asia being timed close to World Travel Market in London) likely underpinned the absence of tourism boards from the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand.
5) Make Room for the MMTs. An aspirational new generation of Muslim travellers is starting to influence the marketing mindsets of tourism providers, as well as retail brands, banks, restaurateurs and fashion houses. The figures tell their own story. Some 36% of the 121 million Muslim travellers in 2016 were aged under 38, and spending by Muslim millennials is predicted to top USD100 billion by 2025. The Muslim Millennial Travel Report 2017 – launched at ITB Asia during the second Halal in Travel Asia Summit – analyses how faith-based needs and services are combined with a desire for new discoveries, and assesses the challenges and opportunities for destinations and tourism and hospitality providers.
Stay tuned. Part II of this article coming soon…
The post 10 Trending Takeaways in Asian Tourism – Part I appeared first on Check in Asia.
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