Asians to ride global travel boom

Tourists at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Global tourism prospects look favourable over the next 10 years and Thailand is one of the top tourism destinations.

Global tourism prospects look favourable over the next 10 years as both technology and travellers’ habits change. And during this decade, the Asian millennial traveller is expected to make up a huge part of the world’s hospitality demographics.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reports that travel and tourism’s contribution to the global economy has risen to 9.5 per cent of global gross domestic product (US$7 trillion or Bt210 trillion) – not only outpacing the wider economy, but also growing faster than other key sectors such as financial and business services, transport and manufacturing.
The sector’s forecast over the next 10 years looks very promising, but capitalising on the growth opportunity will require a favourable climate for infrastructure investment and people development. Governments can also do much to implement more open visa regimes and to employ intelligent taxation policies.
The latest global trend report issued in October at the World Travel Mart 2014 said the International Mone-tary Fund predicted global Gross Domestic Product growth of 3.4 per cent for 2014, up from 3 per cent in 2013. China, India and Asean are the key drivers of this growth. The data showed that travel and tourism continued to prosper globally, with arrivals reaching a record 1.1 billion in 2013, up by 5.1 per cent. The years 2014 and 2015 are predicted to see a further increase, estimated at 4.7 and 5.7 per cent respectively. The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) forecasts that the total number of travellers would reach 1.6 billion by 2020.
Another source – from a joint study by the Singapore Tourism Board, Visa and McKinsey & Company – revealed that over the next decade, Asian millennial traveller (AMT) expenditure on international travel is expected to increase by 1.6 times to $340 billion. AMT covers approximately a quarter of Asia’s total population and focuses on key areas such as travel and purchase habits.
To the new generation, technological changes, particularly the Internet, are transforming the tourism landscape in terms of bookings, customer service and consumer behaviour. Destination services, personalisation, mobile bookings and peer-to-peer are expected to be the main forces in the travel industry over the next five years.
Global online travel sales amounted to $590 billion in 2013, 27 per cent of total travel sales. The Asia-Pacific is expected to drive global growth in online travel, with its online travel sales set to double from 2013 to $180 billion by 2018. Mobile bookings are expected to reach 35 per cent of online travel bookings by 2018.
UNWTO reported that China reinforced its position as a leading source market for expenditure on travel abroad for the first six to nine months of 2014. The world’s top 10 source markets were led by China (16 per cent), while France (10 per cent), Italy (8 per cent), the United States (6 per cent), Brazil (5 per cent) and the Russian Federation (4 per cent) also reported robust growth.
Among the top 25 source markets in expenditure, double-digit growth rates were registered in India (31 per cent), Norway (22 per cent), Sweden (12 per cent), Taiwan (11 per cent) and South Korea (10 per cent).
Hotel sales globally are rising, driven by strong performances in North America and Asia Pacific. Low-cost carriers continue to be the most successful sector in air travel with the business model embraced by many scheduled airlines.
For Asia, however, economic growth in the region continues to be driven by China, although Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, are also enjoying sound progress. Hotels and airlines are both recording strong tourist growth, benefiting from the rise of intra-regional and domestic travel in the region. To deal with this trend, many National Tourism Organisations (NTOs), including Thailand, have plans to deal with challenges in the years ahead.
Malaysia, whose travel has been hit by the disappearance of two Malaysian Airlines planes in March 2014, has listed tourism as a key sector to drive the country’s plans to become a developed country by 2020. There were 25 million arrivals to Malaysia in 2013 and the numbers were expected to reach 29 million in 2015 and 36 million visitors by 2020. The country created a new national campaign called “Malaysia year of festival”.
Many events have been scheduled in the country throughout 2015, including a rainforest festival, shopping fests, major fairs, sports events, and new Formula E motor racing.
Myanmar next year promises good figures for inbound business, as in other emerging countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia which have seen a huge demand from Western markets, especially from the United Kingdom, the US, Germany, and France.
Tourists to Myanmar are expected to exceed 5 million in 2015, as the private sector strengthens its marketing outside the country – including in Thailand. Vietnam is now offering world-class products – hotels, golf courses, helicopter tours, exclusive cruises, and strong air links.
North Korea is now open for more visitors and recently promoted travel in specific sectors such as surfing and skiing. However, the negative political image of North Korea is likely to make it hard to boost arrivals. The country received fewer than 5,000 visitors last year.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) earlier said it was targeting business travellers through meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) from overseas. The board’s tourism demographic shows that business travel and MICE represent 30 per cent of total arrivals of 15 million in 2014. It intends to up the MICE portion to half of all arrivals in 2015.
The Philippines is also stepping up to reinforce its regional market by announcing “Visit the Philippines Year 2015”, aimed at lifting arrivals from Asean nations through confirmed musical, sport and world conferences. It aims for 10 million arrivals in 2015.
In the Middle East, tourism in the Arabian Gulf has proved many times that it is not affected by war and political tension to nearby parts of the region – Iraq and Syria, Issam Kazom, chief executive of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing said. Another city in the region, Sharjah, is hoping to boost visitors through its campaign focusing on culture and education.
To beat such tough competition, Thailand is set to run a national campaign called Discover Thainess. Authorities planned to invite famous celebrities from around the world to participate in a “Selfie” campaign in order promote attractions in the country via online and social media.