In 2017, Singapore Changi Airport handled a record 62.2 million passenger movements, up six per cent year-on-year, with landings and take-offs growing 3.5 per cent to reach 373,200.

Traffic across all regions saw positive growth, led by China and India which saw increases of 12 and 16 per cent respectively. South-east and North-east Asia contributed to about 70 per cent of total traffic.

Connections to Kuala Lumpur grew seven per cent, replacing Jakarta as Changi’s top city link for 2017. Among Changi Airport’s top 20 destinations, Guangzhou was the fastest growing (+15 per cent), while Brisbane, Penang and Phuket recorded growth of at least six per cent.

December was once again the busiest month of the year, with nearly 5.9 million passenger movements (+3.3 per cent) and 32,960 aircraft movements (+3.1 per cent). The busiest day of the year was December 22, 2017 with 208,043 passengers passing through Changi’s terminals – a record for the airport.

During the year, Changi Airport welcomed three passenger airlines – Hebei Airlines, Norwegian and US-Bangla Airlines, joining over 100 airlines. Ten new passenger city links were also established, to China (Harbin, Shijiazhuang, Yantai), Greece (Athens), India (Madurai), Japan (Hiroshima, Okinawa), Malaysia (Bintulu), Sweden (Stockholm) and the US (Honolulu).

Also notable were the airport’s efforts to cater to the fly-cruise and fly-ferry markets, on top of continuing its courtship of MICE and transit segments. A new shuttle service was introduced last year to facilitate transfers between Changi Airport and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, and this has seen a ridership of close to 10,000 passengers in its seven months of operations.

To grow the fly-cruise market, the Changi Airport Group (CAG) has also signed various collaborations with cruise companies – which are expected to bring in more than 600,000 visitors over a four-year period.

“Looking ahead in 2018, we expect to see more developments in the longhaul segments to Europe. This includes Scoot’s non-stop service to Berlin, and LOT Polish Airlines’ service connecting Singapore and Warsaw. We will also welcome the return of Qantas’ Singapore-London route and an overall increase in seat capacity between Singapore and Australia, as well as Lufthansa’s resumption of its service to Munich,” said Lim Ching Kiat, CAG’s managing director, air hub development.

CAG will also continue efforts to strengthen connectivity to secondary cities in China and India – its fastest growing markets in 2017, Lim added.

Demand for air travel in Asia-Pacific is expected to triple in the next two decades. With the opening of Jewel Changi Airport and the completion of Changi’s Terminal 1 expansion in 2019, Changi Airport’s total handling capacity will increase to 85 million passengers per annum.

In Spain, intercontinental flight bookings for 1H2018 are 4.4 per cent ahead of where they were at the same time last year, with Indonesia and Thailand the South-east Asian destinations growing fastest in popularity, according to ForwardKeys.

Forecasting travel patterns based on forward booking data, ForwardKeys reported that interest in Indonesia is up 14.1 per cent, while Thailand is seeing a 13.7 per cent increase in demand from Spanish travellers. As well, Vietnam ranked the 10th fastest growing longhaul destinations for Spaniards, up 11.7 per cent. Other Asian destinations ranking in the top 10 fastest growing destinations are the Maldives (+29.1 per cent) and China (+25.3 per cent).

The longhaul destinations currently showing the greatest growth in bookings are Egypt (+60.6 per cent) which is recovering from a period of internal political unrest; the Dominican Republic (+48.8 per cent) which is benefitting from a new winter-season flights operated by Wamos Air; and Cuba (+42.6 per cent), which has been experiencing a tourism boom.

Specifically for the Easter holiday season (March 19-April 1), the longhaul destination currently most in demand among Spaniards is the US, which has a dominant 28 per cent share of the segment. The next most popular intercontinental destination is Thailand with a 10 per cent market share, followed by Cuba, Argentina and Japan, all with a four per cent share.

Overall, the flight data company expects growth in longhaul travel to be lifted by new routes from Barcelona and Madrid as well as greater enthusiasm for Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt and Thailand.

Commenting on the findings, CEO of ForwardKeys, Olivier Jager, said: “This is a healthy outlook. One has to be particularly pleased for Egypt, as it is a fabulous destination that has suffered greatly in recent years and, like Spain, is heavily dependent on tourism.

“Also, one cannot help but be impressed by Thailand’s and Cuba’s progress in attracting Spanish visitors, as both have significant shares of the market and are showing strong growth in forward bookings.”

South-east Asia’s hostel market experienced “skyrocketing growth” in 2017, surging 32 per cent in bed inventory, according to the latest Hostel Market Update by C9 Hotelworks.

The surge brings the bed count in the region to 63,632 across 1,766 properties, led by Thailand with a 41 per cent share.

Thailand now has 722 hostels and 25,207 beds, up 28 per cent year-on-year. Other hostel market leaders in the region are Vietnam, with 221 hostels and 7,763 beds, a bed supply increase of 41 per cent year-on-year.

Bill Barnett, managing director of C9, observed “no sign of deceleration as investment is being embraced by an increasing number of hospitality groups and institutional investors”.

Indeed, the report shows conventional hotel companies investing in hostels, highlighted by Lub d, the region’s largest and fastest-growing hostel group.

Despite the influx of capital into branded hostels, independent hostels continue to dominate the regional market, with 1,532 properties representing 87 per cent of total supply.

C9 further reported that year-on-year market-wide ADR per bed (ADRB) declined with bed supply rising sharply. Singapore has the highest ADRB, followed by Myanmar and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Barnett observed: “In past years, hostel developers maximised profits by developing properties with high bed inventory and no private rooms. However, micro-private rooms in hostels are becoming essential and impactful to rate yields. This can best be seen in the growth of hostels with private rooms in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam which now exceed 50 per cent of overall room inventory.

Going forward, C9 expects privacy will become more indispensible for hostels, prompting an exponential growth in private rooms.

C9 also foresees hostels will increasingly come under government scrutiny due to the growth of shared economy products such as Airbnb.

“Despite an elevated growth of supply, one considerable complication to the hostel market is the ambiguous rules and regulations; these have become a major concern in leading destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia and even Japan. While government regulation is starting to evolve, this remain a key sector issue,” Barnett said.

International tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable seven per cent in 2017 to reach a total of 1.3 billion, well above the sustained and consistent trend of four per cent or higher growth since 2010 and representing the strongest results in seven years, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.

Asia-Pacific recorded six per cent growth to see 324 million international tourist arrivals in 2017. Arrivals in South Asia grew 10 per cent, eight per cent in South-east Asia, seven per cent in Oceania and three per cent in North-east Asia.

The year was characterised by sustained growth in many destinations and a firm recovery in those that suffered decreases in previous years, in part driven by the global economic upswing and the robust outbound demand from many traditional and emerging source markets, particularly a rebound in tourism spending from Brazil and Russia.

Led by Mediterranean destinations, the mature region of Europe recorded 671 million international tourist arrivals in 2017, a remarkable eight per cent increase following a comparatively weaker 2016.

The Americas saw three per cent growth to welcome 207 million international tourist arrivals in 2017, with most destinations enjoying positive results (seven per cent for South America, and four per cent for Central America and the Caribbean). In North America (+two per cent), robust results in Mexico and Canada contrasted with a decrease in the US, the region’s largest destination.

Africa consolidated its 2016 rebound with an eight per cent increase to reach a record 62 million international arrivals.

Meanwhile, the Middle East recorded five per cent growth with 58 million international tourist arrivals in 2017.

This current strong momentum is expected to continue in 2018 at a rate of four to five per cent. This is somewhat above the 3.8 per cent average increase projected for the period 2010-2020 by UNWTO in its Tourism Towards 2030 long-term forecast. Europe and the Americas are both expected to grow by 3.5-4.5 per cent, Asia-Pacific by five to six per cent, Africa by five to seven per cent, and the Middle East by four to six per cent.