THE Asian Century is well underway with a decade of sustained growth lying ahead for Asia’s travel industry, according to a new major industry study by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Amadeus.
Macro trends driving industry growth over the next decade predicts that international travel will rise by at least 5.4 per cent annually for the next 10 years, outstripping global GDP growth.
Asia-Pacific travel will skyrocket within the next decade, with visitor flows for Asia reaching an average annual growth rate of 15.1 per cent. This is close to double the figures for the period 2002 to 2012.
Asian travel expenditure will also leave top spender Europe in the dust by 2023. Growing at 18 per cent per year, Asian outbound travel spend will reach US$752.8 billion to make up 40 per cent of global spend.
Meanwhile, Asia will drive 55 per cent of global business travel growth in the next 10 years. North-east Asia alone will contribute 42 per cent of this, while South-east Asia makes up the remaining 13 per cent.
Emerging economies are also set to spearhead air travel growth, said the study. Countries such as India, Indonesia and Russia will overtake the OECD bloc as the biggest sources of global air traffic.
China’s prominence cannot be ignored either, with the country to drive as much as 20 per cent of global outbound travel and already touted to overtake the US as the world’s largest travel market by end 2014.
The pool of potential outbound travellers will more than double by 2013 and China is on track to become the world’s largest domestic travel market by 2017 as its GDP, employment level and consumer spending shoots up.
Still, other emerging markets like Russia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Turkey will also register more than five per cent annual travel growth in the next 10 years.
“The findings underscore what most of us already intuitively know – that we have now truly arrived in the Asian Century. No matter where we look, Asian travellers have and will continue to change the landscape of travel, and businesses must adapt to them or risk falling behind,” said Angel Gallego, president, Amadeus Asia Pacific.
