With international tourist arrivals reaching one billion in 2012, the industry is gearing up to welcome the growth drivers of tourism in the world – Asian Millennial Travellers. Asia represents the potential for travel and tourism, stating that supremacy is shifting to the East. According to a report released by WTTC, by 2020, two out of every five travellers are expected to be from the region and will account for nearly half of global tourism expenditure. The UNWTO predicts that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020, and the ‘Kuoni Travel Report India 2007’ predicts that total outbound spending will cross the US$28 billion mark in 2020. This proves Asia’s dominance in the industry.
Asia Pacific has become the world’s largest travel market and is expected to reach US$351.9 billion this year according to industry research by PhoCusWright. These latest figures were released at the sixth edition of ITB Asia. “Backed by economic powerhouses such as China, India and Southeast Asia, the region has established itself as one of the powerful forces in world travel. The APAC travel market ousted Europe to become the world’s biggest regional travel market in 2012, earning gross bookings of US$326.2 billion and the impressive figure is expected to grow another 8 per cent in 2013,” said Chetan Kapoor, Research Analyst Asia Pacific, PhoCusWright.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association’s (PATA) Forecasts 2013-2017 records that the visitor arrivals to APAC will continue to grow with an average annual growth rate of 4.1 per cent over the period 2013-2017, and reach 581 million by 2017. According to Martin Craigs, CEO, PATA, outbound travel out of Asia has not experienced a lull despite the economic slowdown. “I firmly believe that China, Cambodia, the Maldives, Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, India and Mongolia are the fastest growing destinations in terms of outbound travellers. Northeast Asia will maintain a dominant position in the inbound market of Asia Pacific, and its market share will reach 53.52 per cent by 2017. By 2015, India might surpass China’s progress,” he stated.
After recording encouraging results and marginal growth in the first quarter of 2013, the Asian tourism and hospitality industry has experienced a average first half of 2013, said Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook (India). “The end result will definitely show a positive shift in numbers. Asia is a continent with a wide spectrum of travellers and with the largest population. Asians today are more tech savvy and have a sizeable population of higher middle class who have disposable income. I am expecting a 15-20 per cent rise in the number of outbound travellers out of Asia in the last two months of the year.”
The sudden shift to the Asian markets is expected to fuel roughly 47 million new jobs in Asia by 2023, and these figures are expected to grow till 2050. “This will be a period when China and India are expected to be the world’s largest and third-largest economies respectively, with an estimated three billion people having the financial means to travel,” said Deep Kalra, Founder, Group Chairman & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.
Kalra further shared that despite low internet access and infrastructure challenges, the growth of online travel has not witnessed a downfall. He revealed that, in 2012, online travel sales in APAC accounted for 23 per cent of the total travel market in the region with a value of US$68 billion.
