Issue #74 - Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN Inbound Markets
Can South East Asia's "Rising Stars" help rebuild Australia's tourism economy?
Welcome to issue 74 of Asia Travel Re:Set…
“Stop shooting at a nuclear hazardous facility.”
Two nights ago, that sentence was shouted repeatedly by a technician at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as Russian troops fired in its direction.
Will those be the most chilling words we hear this year? Or will the escalation of Russian aggression in Ukraine drag NATO and perhaps the world into war?
Countries and companies are now engaged in economic warfare with Putin’s Russia. This will have a disruptive radiation effect across all continents.
Current global circumstances make it difficult to focus on travel and tourism - but the industry needs support.
A protracted invasion - or worse - in Europe will send jet fuel costs even higher, and drag down supply and demand worldwide. The next few months won’t be easy.
Thanks for being onboard.
“IN THE NEWS”
This is starting to look like the beginning of an uncharted and highly volatile realm of geopolitics. The economic ramifications are yet to fully reveal themselves. Russia is a major power, and war and sanctions will disperse economic damage everywhere. I provided a few comments on war, oil and travel in South East Asia for Al Jazeera.
Also this week, I wrote an article entitled Six Challenges for Reviving Tourism in South East Asia for the Asia Media Centre. Clouding the recovery outlook are various stormy waters, ranging from complex entry regulations and medical insurance requirements to the absence of Chinese tourists and rising cost pressures for airlines.
Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN Inbound Markets
Can South East Asia's "Rising Stars" help rebuild Australia's tourism economy?
For much of the pandemic, ‘Fortress Australia’ isolated itself from the world. Now, after a successful vaccine rollout, its borders are open. International travel is back!
Tourism Australia is prioritising South East Asian markets to help drive its recovery.
So this week, Hannah Pearson and I chatted with Singapore-based Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager, South & South East Asia, of Tourism Australia.
The timing was perfect. Soon after our discussion, the first plane left Singapore for Perth to mark the reopening of Western Australia, the final Aussie state to reopen.
Brent explained why South East Asian markets are vital for Australia to beat its forecast for aviation capacity to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2024-25.
Below, I have set out some of Brent’s thoughtful insights in a Q&A format.
NB: For space reasons, these are selected extracts from the interview, and these are not the complete answers. See the links below to listen to Brent’s interview in full.
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Asia Travel Re:Set: What were the primary challenges of promoting Australia over the past two years, when it was firmly closed off to the world?
Brent Anderson: The first thing we did was look at the organisations that were dependent on Tourism Australia playing a leadership role. We started running domestic campaigns to keep those businesses alive, keep Australians holidaying in Australia and help drive investment. Internationally, we made a conscious decision to keep marketing through the pandemic. We tested things and learned a great deal in various markets. It became about engaging, entertaining and sending out messages of hope to consumers. As a research-driven organisation, we also had a step-back look at our research. Over time, we started to see a lot of creative new products being developed for us to show off once the country reopened for travel.
ATR: Australia is now open, but there was relatively little lead time. How did you plan your strategy, and ensure that tourism stakeholders were ready to welcome back travellers?
BA: We ran scenarios, scenarios, scenarios. In this part of the world, we are extremely reliant on our partner airlines, travel agents and OTAs. We made our partnership guidelines very partner-friendly to be able to plan ahead. And we started picking dates. Every month we updated media plans and had our partners ready to go. Our standout programme from a distribution point of view was the Aussie Specialist programme. Travel agents enrol in training programmes with dedicated teams around the world. These are usually face to face, but they became online. In 2019, we did 32,000 training sessions. Last year, 80,000. So we got our destination and distribution partners ready for every aspect of reopening.
ATR: How important is Western Australia’s reopening for attracting back South East Asian tourists and VFR travellers?
BA: It’s incredibly important. If you look at a map of Australia, Western Australia itself is almost 50% of the country continent, so it’s a huge destination. Its proximity to South East Asia allows us to compete in that short-haul market, whereas with the east coast we compete more in the mid-haul markets. The first wave of travellers we see coming back are VFR, it’s “Travel for Love”. There’s a bit of corporate, but it’s very much reconnecting with family and friends. Now 2-3 months after the Singapore citizen reopening, we are starting to see the holiday visitor coming through as well.
“Singapore connects to more parts of Australia than any country in the world, and Malaysia is not far behind.”
ATR: Rebuilding inbound travel from South East Asia requires airlines to step up their services and frequencies. Will that take time?
BA: It definitely will. We are very close to our airport partners because you can’t drive to Australia. But these are massive capital and personnel decisions, and our job is to build the demand so that they will want to put on those flight services and frequencies. The first stage is reconnecting destinations. Singapore connects to more parts of Australia than any country in the world, and Malaysia is not far behind.
ATR: Australia is moving into Autumn and then Winter - how important is seasonality for South East Asian travellers?
BA: South East Asia is unique, as our biggest peak is May-June, during winter. Travellers have that desire to experience cold weather, wear a puffy jacket and experience our snow fields and enjoy good food and wine. We’ve got some school holidays coming up in the region, including Indonesia, and those will help drive the first wave of holiday visitors. We are seeing bookings from families, couples and quite a bit of high-yield business as well.
“We are seeing bookings from families, couples and quite a bit of high-yield business as well.”
ATR: Why has Tourism Australia set an AUD4 million budget for the Singapore market?
BA: This is around four times our normal budget for Singapore. The whole [South East Asian] region is so critical to recovery. Looking at lead time, in Singapore we’re seeing a two-month window between booking and travel. If that happens in the rest of the world, we’re not going to see Northern Hemisphere travellers come back as fast as we need them to. Geography is also a key factor. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are critical to restore that last leg of flights into Australia so travellers from UK, Europe and North Asian can transit into Australia. Strategically, it’s critical that we get these two hubs firing up.
ATR: The Chinese market was vital to Australia before COVID-19, for tourism and the VFR and student segments. When do you anticipate the return of Chinese visitors?
BA: Everyone in the world is missing the Chinese. They are our first, second and third markets, they are so important to Australia. There is no clear direction at the moment when that market will open up. As soon as China does open, we will definitely go after it. The people-to-people connections and the strong VFR market we get because of the Chinese population living in Australia will help that. VFR is really important, not only for driving tourism dollars but helping fill airline seats alongside holiday visitors.
“Everyone in the world is missing the Chinese. They are our first, second and third markets, they are so important to Australia.”
Listen to The South East Asia Travel Show’s interview with Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager, South & South East Asia, of Tourism Australia. Brent explains how Australia will roll out its marketing campaigns in South East Asia and beyond as the new era of travel unfolds. Plus, he discusses how Australia aims to rebuild global airline connectivity, and where Australian outbound travellers will be heading in 2022.
Listen to Two Years of Travel Disruption, Part 5 - Australia Reopens & Targets ASEAN, with Brent Anderson:
Or wherever you access your pods!
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 74.
Until next week, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, the Asia Travel Re:Set website and The South East Asia Travel Show.
Stay safe,
Gary