Tag Archives: APAC

MOT apprised that India has witnessed 9.24 mn Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in 2023, which marks an increase of 43.5 per cent from 2022. Interestingly, 1.22 mn of them were from APAC countries – Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, and Republic of Korea. Additionally in 2023, 6.35 lakh foreign tourists arrived in India for medical purposes.

Fitch Ratings report affirmed that the tourism and travel sector in the APAC region will continue to recover although the pace will be slow. Footfalls in APAC will reach 92 per cent of 2019 level this year, with nominal global tourism receipts exceeding that in 2019 by six per cent, fuelled by robust demand, economic resilience, and additional flight capacity.

Sharing her views on how business travel in India is slated for growth, Catherine Logan, Regional Vice President of EMEA & APAC, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), said, “India will fully reach pre-2019 spending levels by 2025 and is likely to reach 120 per cent of its pre-COVID business travel spend by 2027.”

Liz Ortiguera, CEO, PATA, will share her insights on the future of travel & tourism in APAC at the PATA Tourism PowerHouse webinar on 29th July, at 12 pm. Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University, China and a renowned tourism analyst, will also share his views on outbound tourism from India at the webinar. To attend, register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bku5hVW-TRq5f_SiqmD5IQ

With technology being essential to meet new traveller needs, Indian airports are undergoing massive digitalisation. “We are now seeing that future digital transformation initiatives are being accelerated,” says Sunil Ankalgi, Head of Sales & Account Management, Airport IT, APAC, Amadeus.

In the APAC region, while Northeast Asia has taken the major brunt of the crisis with bookings being down by 83%, South Asia has been significantly less impacted and most of the countries in the region on an average 50 to 60 per cent behind 2019 levels, reveals ForwardKeys.

South Asia remains the least affected region within APAC, reveals Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys. He says that while the North East Asia region has taken the brunt of the crisis with bookings down by 83%, the impact on South Asia has been significantly less and the specific results in South Asia reveal that bookings are down by 60.2%.

UNWTO has revised its 2020 prospects for international tourist arrivals to a negative growth of 1-3 per cent, translating into an estimated loss of US$ 30 to 50 billion in international tourism receipts. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, UNWTO predicted a positive growth of 3-4 per cent for this year. This first assessment expects that Asia and the Pacific will be the worst affected regions, with an anticipated fall in arrivals of 9-12 per cent. Estimates for other world regions are currently premature in view of the rapidly evolving situation. UNWTO underscores that any estimate must be treated with caution and is likely to be updated.

Almost half of Indian travellers (48 per cent) book their accommodation in advance of their flight or transportation, compared to an APAC average of 35 per cent, a report titled ‘Amadeus journey of Me Insights — What Asia Pacific travellers want’ reveals. According to the report, only 15 per cent wait until after they have booked their flight but before departure, compared to 27 per cent regionally. Also, 34 per cent Indians book their accommodation at the same time when they book flight/transport. Only 15 per cent book their accommodation after their flight/transport is booked, but before departure. On the contrary, per cent APAC travellers book their accommodation after booking their flight/transport, but before departure. The report also suggests that 3 per cent Indian travellers book their accommodation after reaching the destination, as compared to 2 per cent APAC travellers.

Booking.com has partnered with Air India to offer the airline’s customers access to over 28.9 million accommodation listings, including everything from homes, apartments, villas to world-class hotels and resorts from the Air India website. Stewart Jones, Regional Director – Strategic Partnerships, APAC, Booking.com said, “Air India makes it the perfect partner for us to showcase our global online accommodation offering to their domestic and international customers. As India is poised to become the third largest aviation market by 2020 with its fast-growing outbound travel market, we are happy to combine our strengths with Air India’s to deliver the best travel experience to travellers across the country.” Madhu Mathen, General Manager – Sales and Marketing, Air India said, “Booking.com’s global reach and unique accommodation offerings is a key reason we chose the online accommodation platform as one of our first accommodation partner. As a member of the world’s largest airline alliance – Star Alliance, Air India has passengers that are globe-trotters. Partnering with Booking.com enables us at Air India to provide our customers a broad & unique variety of accommodation options in any city we fly them to.”