Asia Travel Re:Set #33 - How Are Tech-Smart Travellers Rethinking 'The Meaning of Tourism'?
"More sophisticated and convenient consumer technology has diversified its influence on the ways that people behave, browse, buy and - crucially - interact."
Hello. Welcome to Asia Travel Re:Set…
A couple of weeks ago, in Issue #31, I wrote that when discussing travel and tourism - particularly during the past year - the debate often centres around governments (and health ministries), tourism authorities, travel lobby groups and tourism providers.
The ‘supply side.’
Much less space is given to travel consumers - who are, by definition, the most important players in the entire industry because they generate the demand. They pay the money. Their opinions matter.
So, after a year of travel stasis and movement restrictions, how are travel consumers rethinking the meaning and purpose of tourism in their own lives? And is the travel industry listening?
Too soon to tell, right?
Perhaps, but we are all seeking pointers that guide us towards a clearer picture of how travellers may behave in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future.
Over the past year, I’ve been working with hotel groups, travel and consumer research firms, brands, consulting and marketing service firms to glean insights from domestic travel trends and online consumption patterns in different Asian markets.
Some of what we discovered are accelerated trends from the pre-pandemic era - think: personalised search-and-shop optimisation, live streaming as a bespoke branding tool, App Clips, digital-only banks and optimised peer-to-peer payment formats.
Others are subtle, and not so subtle, twists on existing trends - think: gamification shifts in e-commerce, CGI and nano influencers, innovations in solar wearables, diversity in plant-based consumables and AI-powered everything.
Overall, we have watched as more efficient, sophisticated and convenient consumer technology has diversified its influence on the ways that people behave, browse, buy and - crucially - interact.
So, I’ve collated a few of these learnings, which formed the basis for a presentation I gave at this week’s ASEAN Tourism Research Association Annual Forum.
Inevitably, these are mere snapshots in time. Consumer perceptions are influenced constantly within the techno-sphere to which we entrust our daily interactions.
Vaccine rollouts - although currently slow - will stimulate further accelerations and twists in thought and behaviour processes.
That said, expectations are slowly crystallising that when travel does return to a degree of ‘normality’ - maybe in 2022 - we will witness new patterns emerging.
Thanks for being on board,
Gary
Coming Next Week…!
I’m delighted to team up with 2 brilliant Asia-based travel analysts, Dr Jaeyeon Choe and Michelle Dy, to create the Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism Stakeholder Report.
Each month, we’ll analyse the meaningful developments in aviation, travel and tourism policy, economic strategy, investment, infrastructure and environmental regulation.
No hype or spin. No forecasting or speculation. Just context-rich analysis.
Find out more HERE
The Sunday Itinerary
- DashBoard
From 15 down to 3 in Asia Pacific this week.
- QuoteBoard
Trans-Tasman Bubble, Cruising in Malaysia, Cycling Tours in Vietnam.
- How Are Travellers Rethinking ‘The Meaning of Tourism’?
2021: A Year of BIG Questions
Rethinking ‘My Place on the Planet’
Rethinking ‘The Moment’
Rethinking ‘Escapes to Nature’
Rethinking ‘Self-Drive’
Rethinking ‘Life Landmarks’
DashBoard
From 15 down to 3 in Asia Pacific this week.
15: Vietnam Airlines is expanding domestic flight frequencies to 15 destinations nationwide, including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Danang and Phu Quoc. [Vietnam Net]
10: Thailand confirmed it will cut the mandatory quarantine length from 14 days on 1 April. A further reduction to 7 days for vaccinated travellers is expected. [Xinhua]
6: Shanghai will host the 6-day Tourism Plus Shanghai 2021 expo - “for more than 5,000 exhibitors and 400,000 visitors” - starting on 29 March. [China.org.cn]
4: Current number of active COVID-19 cases in Laos. [The ASEAN Post]
3: South Korean airline t’way has ordered 3 A330-300 planes to operate charter flights to Kyrgyzstan, Australia and Croatia later this year. [Orient Aviation]
QuoteBoard
You heard it here…
"The cabinet is going to be discussing that in the next week or two. We'll say a lot more about the bubble next week.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addresses the media as speculation increases that a 2-way Australia-New Zealand travel bubble may commence in April. [TVNZ]
“Cruise services have always been the cornerstone in Penang, and what gave Penang its distinctiveness. With the persistent issue of the Covid-19 pandemic that has curbed domestic tourism, supporting the Genting Cruise Lines on ensuring safe and comfortable cruise trips is important to jumpstart the local cruise sector."
Sasedharan Vasudevan, CEO of Penang Port, on the resumption of Star Cruises itineraries in Malaysia. [Travel Weekly Asia]
“Last year, we didn’t run any cycle tours at all as we didn’t think the domestic market was there for it. But we will do something later this year, maybe October, because the number of cyclists is growing rapidly in Vietnam, and there is more of a market developing.”
David Lloyd, Founder of Velo Vietnam, a road and mountain cycling tours specialist. [The South East Asia Travel Show]
COVID-19 has united everyone who travels, or is involved with the business of travel, to take stock of our human vulnerability, personal wellbeing and our taken-for-granted mobility. Consumers understand the post-pandemic sacrifices they may need to make, and expect travel providers to do likewise. Adapting to this capricious quest for meaning will define the travel industry’s immediate future.
1) 2021: A Year of BIG Questions
Across the 2010s, Asia Pacific witnessed a decade of travel growth. It was aspirational and free-spirited. More airline routes, cheaper flights. Lots of new hotels and home-stays. The every day availability of travel enabled more people to travel more often.
In 2020, that came to a grinding halt. Entirely a domestic travel year in most countries, the focus was safe, sanitised and risk averse.
In 2021, the widely heralded arrival of vaccine shipments is bringing both glimmers of hope and innumerable questions.
“When will I be able to travel again?” “Where can I go?” “How long will my travel vaccine passport last?”, “What will be my itinerary restrictions?”, “How many tests will I need to take?”
“Will I be tracked and traced wherever I go?”
“Will I have less destination choices?, “Will the costs of travel increase?
And, perhaps, most importantly, “Will I be welcomed wherever I travel?
Based on these questions, the decisions we make in future will be far more pragmatic and nuanced than than the ‘book-and-fly’ culture we enjoyed in 2019.
2) Rethinking ‘My Place on the Planet’
If you look at consumer purchases online over the past year across Asia Pacific, environmental elements have really taken hold.
There has been a migration, particularly among younger consumers, towards the ethos of #SaveOurPlanet.
COVID-19 has given pause to reflect about our planet and natural resources. This may influence future travel behaviours, although the potential outcomes remain unclear.
That said, there's been huge innovation in solar wearables, whether for tracking personal activity via a wristband, or hiking with a backpack that utilises small solar panels to recharge a mobile phone or smart device.
Home shoppers are becoming accustomed to biodegradable packaging and utensils with their shopping orders or food deliveries. The profile of organic and plant-based foods has skyrocketed.
We are seeing more upcycled and slow fashions. Plus, earth-friendly skin and body care products and bathroom amenities - and demand for natural hand sanitisers that are less harsh on the skin.
Sales of bicycles are riding a steep upward curve as more people opt for pedal power as a way to relax, take exercise and experience off-road locations.
By contrast, there’s been a social media backlash against KOLs who show more love for themselves than the ecology. A Vietnamese singer roundly vilified for taking selfies while sitting on a coral reef was a high-profile case, but there are many examples.
3) Rethinking ‘The Moment’
Consumers will want to live ‘in the moment’ more than ever when travel returns. Travelling had evolved into a tapestry of real-time snapshots for post-1990 travellers before the pandemic. This trend will be hyper-accelerated.
Gamification of travel experience will bring more live streaming, live interactions, live engagements and live competitions. Younger travellers expect to participate at all times, and they adore tech-driven tasks and challenges.
The above two live experience photos were published by Chinese online travel platform Mafengwo.
The one on the right is a livestream interaction with Spring Airlines, but you can see that both screens are extremely busy.
There are numerous real-time viewer interactions taking place on screen while each activation is unfolding. This level of ‘in the moment’ participation is vital. No-one wants to (appear to) be left out.
Today’s travellers demand interaction in every single moment, and social media platforms have integrated more sophisticated sharing elements over the past year.
Everybody travels with both a personal and a tangential audience now… but do you know who and where those audiences are, and how to engage with them?
4) Rethinking ‘Escapes to Nature’
After more than a year of staying and working at home and venturing locally for fun escapes and relaxing retreats, what will inspire travel when it is available once more?
The value of nature is likely to be important - even though most of us will still fly in and out of cities - and then radiate outwards into nature. [NB: don’t overlook the fact that travellers will still want to enjoy the benefits of big cities, albeit for shorter stays.]
Escaping confined spaces, like airports, metro stations and hotel lobbies, will make getting out into the spatial world more meaningful.
In turn, travellers will make for island coastal paths, river valleys, hilltop temples and volcanic ridges. They will want to savour the rainforests and rare wildlife - and sail around the shores at sunset.
South East Asia has these attributes in abundance, but it's up to tour operators and tourism boards to engage consumers by creating inspiring getaways to nature.
That's not something the region has excelled at before, because of the controlled reliance on a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage ethos of travel.
But…
5) Rethinking ‘Self-Drive’
Self-drive travel is shaping up to be a major driver of post-pandemic tourism. However, as Dr Victor Wee, Secretary General of the ASEAN Tourism Research Association (ATRA), said in an excellent presentation about Drive Tourism in ASEAN at the ATRA Annual Forum (see above image), various legal and compliance issues act as barriers to cross-border driving in South East Asia.
In recent years, Chinese and South East Asian travellers have rented cars, camper vans and motorbikes in greater numbers to create their own off-track itineraries. Australia and New Zealand were popular destinations, but over the past year most countries in the region have seen a sharp rise in self-drive travel on the domestic front.
The freedom to build personal itineraries, and see countries on our own terms will continue to gain momentum - not least because it enables tourists to avoid the viral risks of airports and airplanes.
Some ASEAN countries have spotted the potential. Thailand plans to construct a new Thai Riviera road network. Vietnam has given a green light to the Vung Tao coastal road. The new Vientiane-Vang Vieng highway in Laos will be extended to the Chinese border, and Malaysia is building the Pan-Borneo Highway on the island of Borneo.
These projects will take time to construct, but they signpost that South East Asia is ready to embrace self-drive travel on a larger scale.
6) Rethinking ‘Life Landmarks’
The opportunity to share landmark celebrations, such as birthday and anniversaries, with loved ones and family overseas is sorely missed across Asia.
The gap in the destination weddings and honeymoons market is especially cavernous. Once travel is reestablished, this will be an upward-trading segment region-wide.
Forefront in many couples’ minds is the Maldives, which reopened to tourism last July and is adept at destination weddings. It even offers underwater wedding banquets.
Beyond the ceremony, wedding planning is a growth industry in Asia. Selecting the right backdrop for proposals, engagements and pre-ceremony shoots really matters.
Many countries in South East Asia will look to the Big 2 resort wedding markets: China and India.
Thailand and Vietnam have both been re-engaging strongly with the Indian travel market to bring back the luxury weddings that are huge revenue generators. Malaysia is a strong player in this sphere, too. The Philippines could be a dark horse.
Sadly, there is no space to include active travel and participative sports tourism in this issue, but it is a white-hot trend driver that I will return to in the coming weeks.
To view the full presentation CLICK HERE (starts at 1 hour 46 mins)
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 33.
Until next week, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and the Asia Travel Re:Set website.
And feel free to send comments and feedback to gary@check-in.asia
See you for the new Asia Pacific Travel & Tourism Stakeholder Report next Sunday.
Have a great week,
Gary