As destinations, China is also the most popular of the five among the global industry.
LONDON – WTM 2013 – REPORT: China remains the most important emerging economy for the global travel and tourism industry, confirms the World Travel Market 2013 Industry Report 2013.
However, some of the 1,277 global industry bosses attending World Travel Market this week who responded for the report admitted that their attention is no longer focused on the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
When asked if the five BRICS nations were still the most important for their business, more than half (56%) said “yes”, although one-in-five (20%) responded “no” with a quarter undecided. With China’s population now estimated at 1.354 billion, it is little surprise that global travel bosses are interested in appealing to Chinese people wishing to travel, making China the most important BRICS market in terms of outbound travel. Russia (16%), India (13%) Brazil (13%) and South Africa (9%) have less appeal as source markets although for all five countries the overwhelming appeal – for more than 70% of respondents – is the sheer volume of potential customers.
Around one-in-five (18%) tipped China as having the greatest inbound potential, followed by Russia (11%), Brazil (11%), India (10%) and South Africa (9%). For China and Russia, the sample noted that business and trade links were driving interest from corporate travellers visiting on business. However, a significant proportion of respondents are focussing their attention elsewhere. For inbound tourism, 41% said that none of the BRICS nations were important to their business. And nearly three-in-ten (28%) admitted no interest in outbound business from the five countries.
Reed Travel Exhibitions, Senior Director, World Travel Market, Simon Press said: “China is still dominating the headlines, and its economic success continues to be reflected by the level of interest from the global travel industry. “WTM has been actively working with travel suppliers from the BRICS nations for a number of years, and we have expanded the brand into these regions, with the launch of WTM Latin America in Brazil this year and hosting WTM Vision events in Moscow and Shanghai.”
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