The main travel destination in Asia is Greater China with Mainland, Macao and Hong Kong (32%), followed by Thailand (13%), Singapore and Malaysia (8% each), Japan and South Korea Korea (7% each).
Outbound travel*
Asia counts more than 4 billion inhabitants, corresponding to 60% of world population. China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion) are the dominating population concentrations. In terms of individual buying power, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the Arabian “Oil” countries are running in front, followed by fast emerging markets in China, South East Asia and India.
In 2012 Asians undertook 139 million international trips. Mean length of stay abroad was 5.9 nights per trip, which is very short compared to other continents. On their trips, Asians spent 875 million nights abroad. Mean spending per trip was 1412 Euro and the total sales turnover was some 200 billion Euros. With an average growth of 7% over the last five years Asia is the fastest growing outbound region and generates every year over 50% of global outbound travel growth.
The biggest Asian travel markets* of origin are China (45 Million), Japan (19.5 Million), South Korea (13.5 million) and Taiwan (10 million). Also India (8 million), Indonesia (7 million), Singapore (6.4 million) and Malaysia (5.5 million) are meanwhile important and fast growing travel markets of origin.
Inbound travel*
In 2012 Asian destinations welcomed more than 125 million international overnight stays, counting for 1.025 billion inbound overnight stays in the region. Mean length of stay of foreigners was 8.2 nights. Mean spending per international visitor was 1324 Euro per trip resulting in a total inbound sales turnover of 166 billion Euro. Compared to the rest of the world, Asian inbound was outperforming over the last five years (6.5% p.a.). Global inbound market share of Asian inbound has meanwhile reached 10% with ongoing gain in market share.
The main travel destination in Asia is Greater China with Mainland, Macao and Hong Kong (32%), followed by Thailand (13%), Singapore and Malaysia (8% each), Japan and South Korea (7% each). Also Taiwan and Vietnam (5% each) and India plus Indonesia (4% each) showed good performance over the last five years.
83% of international visitors come by plane. 6% each came by car or bus. Preferred accommodation type is the hotel with 71% share. From all hotel stays two third are spent in the first class, 19% in middle grade and 7% in budget hotels.
Most visitors to Asia came from other countries within Asia (76%). Major markets of origin are China (15%), Japan (10%), Korea (9%), Taiwan (8%), then USA (7%) and Indonesia-Russia-Singapore (5% each). Average spending per trip to Asia is 1324 Euro, slightly decreasing over the last four years. Total sales turnover of international travel to the region is 18 billion Euro per year.
78% of visitors to Asia come for leisure motivations and 22% on business trips. The main type of foreign holiday in the region is touring (37%) followed by city visits (20%) and sun & beach holidays (17%). But there are also 4.5 million holidays spent for relaxation and hanging loose on the countryside (5%) and event visitors (3% ).
Inbound travel trends to Asia continues to look very good.
* Only overnight stays, no day excursions
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
