In Hall 26, the Asian section of ITB Berlin, traditional tour operators in Europe looking for a competitive edge in a very tough environment where online players are chipping away at their heels flocked to Myanmar, the flavour of the month.

The bad news – tourism infrastructure is rather limited and hoteliers, after languishing for years, finally see a chance to charge rates they feel they deserved.

The talk was of a 30-40% rise in rates for this winter season, and that’s gotten tour operators hot and bothered. “They will price themselves out of the market,” said a French tour operator I ran into.

The question is which market of course. Since Myanmar lifted its silken veils, businessmen have been flocking to Yangon and hotels are packed with corporate guests.

Leisure travellers will have to take second place for now and ground tour operators have already blocked and paid for room allotments for winter – just to be sure.

It’s good to see such interest in Myanmar and the potential is immense. The country, about the same size as Thailand, only receives 300,000 arrivals compared with Thailand’s 13 million.

But as PATA’s new CEO Martin Craigs observed on a panel at ITB Berlin, it is hoped that development will be done sensitively and at a pace that doesn’t impact adversely on the country’s tourism assets.

Craigs also got pretty hot and bothered about the carbon emissions tax European governments want to place on airlines. He call airlines the most unappreciated player in travel and tourism. They are the lifeblood of economies, yet they end up as whipping boys.

And he likened the carbon emissions tax governments were planning to impose on travellers to “detention” taxes.

As the Greek economic tragedy plays out, and the US continues to struggle with economic and foreign policies, all eyes are on Asia to deliver the promise of a better tomorrow for travel and tourism. Can Asia deliver? That was the question asked of a panel at ITB Berlin and the answer was a yes but …

Visa applications for Chinese and Indian travellers need to be simplified. It is alright if visas are required but why not make it simpler and use technology – Australia and Cambodia were cited as examples of nations that had made visa applications painless.

If Europe wants to get its share of the Asian promise, then this is clearly an issue to be resolved.

Luxury travel was identified as a segment by Declan Hurley, vice president, sales and marketing, The Ritz-Carlton. In Europe, luxury had become a dirty word but thank goodness in Asia, it was still a sexy word and a booming segment in markets such as China and India.

Helen Marano, government and industry affairs director for the World Travel and Tourism Council, said that of the 150 million new travellers emerging in China, 20 million were classified as luxury customers. India had 10 million in that segment. So think of them as entire countries when you market to them, she said.

Interestingly, what was helping to fuel luxury travel in Asia is also the emergence of low cost airlines across the region.
Consumer behaviour has changed, observed the panellists which also included Pieter Idenburg, CEO of Suntec and Melissa Ow of Singapore Tourism Board. Now people book the hotel first and then find the flights to fit around the accommodation.

And they fly low cost but stay luxury, said Hurley. “They’d rather spend the money on a nice hotel than on a flight,” he added.

Idenburg and Ow attributed Singapore’s sterling growth in tourist arrivals in 2011 – 32.2 milion arrivals and S$22.2 billion in tourist spending – to both the low cost and of course, the two Integrated Resorts which have transformed the tourism landscape.

But wait, don’t write off Europe yet, said Zoltan Somogyi, executive director for member relations and services for the UNWTO. Don’t make the mistake of linking tourism to the economy, he said.

Tourism was still growing in Europe, people were still travelling. They’re just travelling differently.

The key is understanding the changes and targeting your marketing efforts to go after the customers you want. And increasingly customers are going online as Europe too feels the power of the web, social and mobile.