“When Japan opens up, we will see another wave,” says Expedia’s new APAC head, Michael Dykes
INBOUND travel demand for SEA grew four times yoy in the first six months of 2022, indicating a strong return of travel in the region, according to Expedia flight data.
The top inbound travellers contributed to South-east Asia’s growth, with six out of the top 10 markets within Asia, indicating a strong return of intra-Asia travel. (Expedia flight demand data between Jan and Jun).
The top 10 inbound markets into Asia were:
- United States
- Thailand
- Singapore
- Philippines
- Canada
- Malaysia
- Australia
- Japan
- United Kingdom
- Indonesia
Expedia also shared these key findings at a press event last week.
• Strong intra-Asia travel in H1 2022 with destinations like Bangkok, Bali and Singapore trending month on month.
• Japan cities are trending for yearend holidays among Singapore travellers. Tokyo is #1 (based on Expedia.com.sg flight search data).
• Increased demand for Singapore as a destination from many parts of Asia Pacific.
• Domestic tourism in Singapore is still popular among local travellers in the second half of 2022. The top 5 destinations include Singapore (staycations), Johor, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Phuket (based on Hotel search data on Expedia.com).
• Manila and Ho Chi Minh City are recovering fastest among SEA destinations, with flight demand in May to June period, returning to 85% of pre-Covid levels
From right, Michael Dykes, James Marshall and Lavinia Rajaram at the press event last week
Michael Dykes, the newly-appointed vice president of market management, Asia Pacific, who is relocating from Japan to Singapore for the role, said the data on Japan reinforces his optimism and confidence in Japan as a destination, despite it still being not fully open yet for inbound travel.
“I do not think the attractiveness has dimmed at all. The food is still there, the seasons, lots of destinations, great infrastructure, educated populace, long history. All those things are still there. Like France, it has a certain set of traits that are still there and we know that people still want to go.
“When it opens up, it will help all of Asia – and we will see another big wave of travel.”
Scoot’s recent announcement that it was relaunching flights to Hokkaido on November 1, with non-stop flights to Sapporo and one-stop options via Taipei, has set the rumour bill buzzing as to “does the airline know something we don’t?”, sparking flight searches and bookings for the winter season.
With this move marking the restoration of all of Scoot’s pre-pandemic destinations to Japan, with daily service to Hokkaido and Tokyo, plus 4X weekly service to Osaka, anticipation is high that perhaps Japan will be fully opened by the winter season.
“People issues” in Japan of concern; workplace diversity, LGBTQ, a key priority
Dykes is not commenting on the speculation but said Expedia was certainly ready for the reopening of all markets in Asia. Pre-pandemic, Expedia Group was responsible for driving every seven in 10 US travellers to Japan and he said he expects the group to get up to that figure when borders reopen fully.
His concern, which is shared by other Japanese industry professionals, is whether Japan will be prepared for the wave of travel returning due to human resource issues. “There are definitely issues of people. I’ve been hearing a lot of stories – lodging, airlines, having difficulty finding people. This is compounded by the fact that there is no immigrant culture, shrinking labour population and people have left the industry. I do worry about that,” he said.
Dykes, who joined Expedia seven years ago from Microsoft, also shared his other passion of inclusion and diversity – that “it is important our workplace reflects the diversity of the travellers we serve – we have 47% women at Expedia Group – and in Asia Pacific, we have good balance throughout.
“We want to work on under-represented identities around accessibility and inclusivity. I love the fact that we want to drive core values.”
In that regard, he said Japan was also changing. “We have seen a generational shift in the way society thinks about these issues – we do need more women in leadership in Japan and more needs to be done. But what used to not be talked about is default now – for example, LGBTQ – now, it’s normal to talk about it and discuss.
“There has been a generational shift in change of mindsets; every country is on a journey.”
This week, on Monday, in a major breakthrough, the Singapore government announced it will repeal a law that bans gay sex, effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the city-state. Singapore is the latest place in Asia to move on LGBT rights, after India, Taiwan and Thailand.
Speaking alongside James Marshall, vice president, global air account management, both executives said the group was committed to investing longterm in the region. The three priorities are putting the traveller first, putting more weight in the B2B business which performed better in the region than its B2C business (given the slow reopening of the region) and “investing in things that lead to long term competitive differentiation, and not just short term gain”.
“B2B has been a bright spot for us. We power thousands of travel providers – such as Traveloka and Amex GBT – and a lot of those brands were able to address domestic demand faster than we could. We will double down on this,” said Dykes.
Featured image: “The food is still there, the seasons, lots of destinations, great infrastructure, educated populace, long history. All those things are still there.”
