Tourism in Asia Pacific is growing steadily according to UNWTO World Tourism Barometer despite negative events in the region in the past year that includes the Southeast Asian haze, MERS in South Korea, a bomb blast in Bangkok and the currency fluctuation.
Asian travellers are looking for fast, easy, and innovative ways to make their travel plans through the use of numerous tools including those for hotel booking including online accommodation booking website, Hotels.com.
Based on the changing preferences of its customers Hotels.com has identified the top 10 travel trends for 2016.
Abhiram Chowdhry, vice president and managing director of Hotels.com, said: “We have noticed customer preferences changing constantly right across the shopping spectrum, and the pace of change is perhaps strongest in Asia Pacific.”
1. Hotel booking in your palm: Travel is inherently an on-the-go experience. Travellers can get everything they need through the devices in their hand, with demand for hotel bookings on mobile phones increasing rapidly. During the first nine months of 2015 more than 1 in 3 bookings on Hotels.com were made on smartphones.
2. Value-added services: Visa application discount, travel insurance, a WiFi egg and a 1-day local tour are some of the value-added services that travellers receive when booking their hotel room through Hotels.com – making it easier for them plan their trips in advance. These value-added services will continue to be attractive in 2016.
3. Be the hotel expert: Savvy travellers are reading and writing reviews, and have become an integral part of the hotel booking process. With 17 million genuine guest reviews on the Hotels.com site travellers can choose properties based on their ranking in categories such as convenience, service, comfort, and cleanliness. Customers will get savvier about reviews in 2016, and value genuine reviews a lot more.
4. Make use of loyalty programmes: Signing up for rewards programmes is a great way to save on travel. A recent survey reveals that over 50% of respondents in Asia enrolled in loyalty programmes valued free products, gift certificates or cash rebates.
Asian travellers are using various tools to plan and book their travel. (Image credit: CreativaImages/iStock)
5. On-the-go Itinerary: Travellers may not have enough time to make the hotel room booking in advance. Over 25% of travellers across the globe tend to book their trip with last minute deals at Hotels.com to enjoy the best hotel discounts in the first nine months of 2015. Again last minute travel will continue to grow in 2016.
6. Hot travel destinations for 2016: Rio, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Bangkok. At a global level Brazil will be a favoured destination with the country hosting the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016. The Olympic Games in Rio shall be Brazil’s biggest draw for travellers – especially sports lovers.
In Asia, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Bangkok will continue to be big for travellers accommodation in hotels was markedly cheaper according to Hotels.com’s latest Hotel Price Index (HPI). Hong Kong and Thailand, especially Bangkok, are still amongst the top destinations for travellers across Asia Pacific, according to the HPI.
7. “Bleisure” on the rise: Business travel in Asia, in general, is on the rise. The Global Business Travel Association expects that by 2018 Asia Pacific will gain another 5% in market share, while the US and Western Europe will lose 3% and 2% respectively. Business travel will continue to grow, along with the trend of more corporate travellers extending their business trips to add leisure travel with their families.
8. Millennial matters: This segment of travellers will continue to become bigger and more important. Driven by income growth, the Asian millennials spend on international travel is expected to increase by 1.6 times to US$340 billion by 2020.
9. Increase in travel spending: Many destinations benefitted from more favourable exchange rate while others became more expensive, but saw their purchasing power abroad increase. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer China continued to report double digit growth in outbound travel benefitting Japan, Thailand, the United States, and various European destinations. One of the emerging markets, India, reported double digit growth in tourism expenditure.
10. Personalised travel experiences: Travellers are using every tool out there to customise their journeys. For example, Hotels.com has tools in its mobile app that include adding local services such as transportation options, providing walking or driving directions, ways to purchase events tickets, for sharing personal experiences such as pictures and real time reviews.
