Tag Archives: Asia Pacific

Focusing on sustainable travel and tourism trends at ITB Asia 2024, Liz Ortiguera, Managing Director for Asia Pacific, WTTC, said, “76% of travellers now seek sustainable travel options, with that figure climbing to 99% in some Asia Pacific markets while emphasising sustainability, community engagement, and Asia Pacific’s pivotal role in the sector’s future.”

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the Tourism Seasonality Summit (TSS) have joined forces to tackle the seasonality challenges in tourism destinations across the Asia Pacific region. The strategic partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), aims to develop innovative solutions to distribute tourism more evenly throughout the year and mitigate the negative impacts of over-tourism. The MOU was officially signed by World Tourism Seasonality Summit CEO Ged Brown and PATA CEO Noor Ahmad Hamid during the PATA Knowledge Forum on 27 August, 2024 which was part of the PATA Travel Mart 2024 programme. “This collaboration aligns with the Association’s mission to bring together private and public sector members to enhance the value, quality, and sustainable growth of travel and tourism. By working together, we aim to develop strategies that will effectively manage and alleviate the impact of tourism seasonality,” remarked Noor Ahmad Hamid, CEO, PATA. Ged Brown, CEO, World Tourism Seasonality Summit, remarked, “The Tourism Seasonality Summit is the only travel and tourism event which is focused completely on resolving the seasonality issues facing tourism destinations, airports and airlines.” This agreement signifies a joint commitment to addressing the challenges of peak season tourism, which often contributes to over-tourism. Both organisations are dedicated to safeguarding, preserving, and enriching tourism experiences for both future generations of travellers and host communities. The collaboration will also provide mutual advantages, such as heightened brand recognition and speaking opportunities at the organisations’ respective events, to name a few.

Marriott International has announced that it expects to open 14 additional luxury properties in Asia Pacific by the end of 2023. The planned additions highlight the strategic growth of Marriott International’s luxury hotel portfolio in the region, where it currently operates 156 luxury properties. Across 13 countries and regions in Asia Pacific, Marriott International’s portfolio of dynamic luxury brands continues to create bespoke experiences for today’s luxury traveler in ever popular cities including Tokyo and Melbourne, and is ready to bring these experiences to emerging destinations such as Jeju and Jiuzhaigou. With a collection of iconic brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, EDITION, JW Marriott and Bulgari, the company is set to meet the increasing demand for exceptional luxury travel experiences for our guests from all around the world. “Today’s luxury traveler is looking for authentic experiences that are personalized, thoughtful and uniquely meaningful,” said Bart Buiring, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Asia Pacific, Marriott International. “Our current portfolio of highly distinctive brands is well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of travelers, and these expected additions reflect our optimism for the future of luxury travel.” The Ritz-Carlton Brings Curated Luxury to New Destinations In 2021, The Ritz-Carlton arrived in the Maldives and the inimitable style and luxury of the brand is set to expand further in Japan with the expected opening of The Ritz-Carlton, Fukuoka in 2023. In Australia, the anticipated opening of The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne in early 2023 will offer guests sweeping panoramic views above the city skyline, along with the brand’s acclaimed culinary offerings. Ritz-Carlton Reserve anticipates debuting its fourth rare estate in Asia Pacific in the historic Chinese valley of Jiuzhaigou …

COVID-19 has shrunk flight booking lead times across the Asia Pacific region since March 2020, with last-minute booking trend led by India and Thailand. As per Amadeus’ first COVID-19 Travel Insights bulletin, flight bookings across the region have been made 17 days later on average compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. Indian travellers appear to be the most last-minute in the region with an average of only 10 days before their departure date between March-July 2020. This is followed by Thai and Singaporean travellers, who have been making bookings on average 21 and 25 days prior to departure during the pandemic.

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in its annual Economic Impact Report (EIR), shows how big a part travel and tourism played in driving the economy in the region last year, based on which the findings reveal how vital the sector will be for the region’s economic recovery from COVID-19. It shows the sector supporting one in 10 (330 million) jobs, making a 10.3% contribution to global GDP and generating one in four of all new jobs. Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC, says, “WTTC’s 2019 Economic Impact Report (EIR) shows how intrinsic Travel & Tourism was last year to the economy in Asia-Pacific, making it the fastest growing region in the world in terms of its contribution to GDP, supporting more than 182 million jobs or 9.6% of the total number of people employed.”

According to a recent analysis by International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) on COVID-19’s impact on the meetings industry, 95.9 per cent of the confirmed meetings in Asia Pacific scheduled for 2020 were not affected by the virus outbreak. This accounted for 1,021 of the 1,065 meetings confirmed. The analysis also states that only 44 meetings scheduled for Asia Pacific were affected by COVID-19, accounting for only 4.1 per cent of the total. While 34 of these meetings were postponed, 10 were either relocated or cancelled. Outside Asia Pacific, two meetings in Europe and one in Africa are postponed. “We believe the international meetings industry can play its part in finding a solution to the current COVID-19 outbreak. International meetings represent the best possible vehicle for addressing this and many other global issues. As an industry, we must demonstrate resilience and confidence by maintaining to the greatest extent possible our ongoing schedule of activities – and where this is not possible, by working collaboratively to develop alternatives that help maintain the exchange of information and insights that account for the benefits we believe to result from this kind of engagement,” says ICCA President, James Rees.

Tricia Warwick, Director, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa for VisitBritain, said that India is a huge tourism opportunity for Britain. “It is a priority market for Britain and forecast to generate more than 22 million outbound visits globally by the end of 2020, with inbound tourism from India to the Britain looking set to continue to increase by +50 per cent visits and +64 per cent spend between 2018 and 2025. According to the International Passenger Survey results for the first nine months from January to September, 2019, visitors from India to Britain set new records for visits and spend. Overall, there were a record 452,000 visits from India to the UK in those months in 2019, up 13% year on year. Those visitors spent a record £499 million, up 44% on January –September 2018,” she confirmed.

India will need 2300 new airplanes by 2037, specially single-aisles as there is a huge growth in low cost carriers as well as domestic traffic, informed Dr Dinesh Keskar, Senior Vice President – Sales, Asia Pacific & India, Boeing Commercial Airplanes while presenting a forecast for the aviation industry – globally and for India – in New Delhi and in Mumbai recently. Outlining some highlights of the report, he said, “In the last 50 months, India has seen double-digit growth in the aviation sector. Clearly, it’s a country of single aisles.” He added that there has been a significant growth in the domestic market with more than 11.8 million passengers flying in 2018 till September.

Odisha Tourism continues to enhance its digital strategy to encourage tourist inflow with a six-month content partnership agreement with TripAdvisor. Under this agreement, TripAdvisor has created a microsite with an entire inventory of places to visit in Odisha, as well as things to do, events and other travel information for global travellers to discover Odisha online. The site also includes campaign branding by Odisha Tourism which is also the host partner of one of the country’s marquee sporting event – Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018. The reach covers India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and UK. Vishal Dev, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Odisha Tourism, said, “It’s great to have a global name like TripAdvisor on board to help us get more travellers to Odisha especially in the coming months when the state will be buzzing with activities across all sectors. We are also host partner of the Men’s Hockey World Cup Bhubaneswar and are expecting substantial foreign footfall. We want to leverage TripAdvisor’s global network and strong understanding of regional travel trade and market nuances, to shape and spur growth in this region.” Sarah Mathews, Head of Destination Marketing for Asia Pacific said, TripAdvisor, said, “We are glad to have the opportunity to work with Odisha Tourism to ensure that travellers who consider visiting India will not only visit its popular destinations but go beyond and experience all that Odisha has to offer.”  

The latest official figures from VisitBritain record 562,000 visits from India to the UK in 2017, up 35 per cent on the previous year, with Indian travellers spending a record £454 million in the UK last year, an increase of 5 per cent on 2016. Tricia Warwick, Director – Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, VisitBritain, said “India is a very important market for VisitBritain and it is fantastic that more people than ever are travelling and enjoying experiences that you can only have in Britain, from the exciting and contemporary culture to innovations in food and drink, from exploring the stunning countryside to the vibrancy of its cool cities.” “Britain is offering great value for visitors from India and we are working hard with partners including tour operators and airlines to make it easier to book and explore more of the country, inspiring more visitors to travel right now,” she said. VisitBritain is also inspiring visitors from India to put the UK at the top of the list as their must-visit destination through its ‘Find Your GREAT Britain, I Travel For…’ digital campaign launched earlier this year.