The Asia Pacific market supplies tourism industry news, and is composed of nations with widely varied characteristics– different languages, cultures, regulations, and cost dynamics of doing business. Therefore, each market must be assessed individually. For example, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan derive larger travel revenues from the outbound travel market, while Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong derive most travel revenue from the inbound market. Countries such as Australia benefit from strong outbound and inbound market segments.
Asian travel styles vary across the region, particularly as they relate to type of travel preferences. Consider, for example, two dominant travel segments – group travel/package tours and visiting friends/relatives (VFR).
Tourism Industry News
Group travel/package tours: Apart from Australia, Group Inclusive Tours (GIT), tourism industry news and package tours are popular among Asian travelers. Group travelers are willing to trade flexibility for price and security. In contrast to the U.S., Foreign Independent Travel (FIT) constitutes a significant portion of the leisure travel market. Asian travel needs have forced travel agencies to offer packages or group tours. Group tours typically involve multi-segment, multi-location air and hotel bookings, and bus tours. Package tours typically include air and hotel with an airport pick-up, except in Japan, where packages are an all-inclusive deal, similar to group tours organized in the rest of Asia.
Visiting friends/relatives segment: The Asian population, spread across Australia, Europe and America, drives the VFR segment of the market, which is unique to Asia. VFR is a potential target segment for booking only air tickets. There are also varying levels of travel sophistication across Asia. In a benchmarking study conducted by the Tourism Board of New Zealand, Australians and Thais were found to be outgoing, while the South Koreans and Japanese are more reserved. Therefore, South Koreans and Japanese travelers tend to travel in groups and in tours, in part to surmount language barriers. The study also shows that tourists from Australia and Singapore have more travel experience and are less price sensitive compared with travelers from China, South Korea and Thailand. Popular destinations also vary across the region. In the same study, the most popular destination for Australians is Europe, and for South Koreans, it’s Japan, which reflects the diversity in travel interests and locations for tourism industry news.