Operators told to focus on middle-class tourists

The results from the Asia Emerging Middle Class Survey were unveiled at TravelRave in Singapore, showing that the number of EMC tourists is growing rapidly in many countries around the world.

The worldwide EMC population is 565 million and is expected to rocket to 3.5 billion by 2030. About 8.5 per cent of the population will be in the Southeast Asia region.

According to the survey, China is speculated to become a super-huge EMC market in the near future. Unlike the traditional middle class, new EMC tourist have irregular income flows. They are also highly concerned about their purchasing power. An average of 42 per cent of EMC tourists own a mobile phone, computer or tablet in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Myanmar is following this trend.

The study urged travel operators to catch the attention of online users, create more attractive activities through social media and design applications to meet their demands. 

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation estimates that more than 500 million general tourists will travel to Asia, with China leading the surge.There are more inbound and outbound tourists in Asia-Pacific. Tourist arrivals in Asia are increasing by 6.3 per cent, faster than the world average of 5.3 per cent. 

This indicates that the industry has room to expand but it also means that new business strategies need to be formulated to cater to the higher demand and new consumer segments such as the Asian Millennial Traveller.