Check-in Asia

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The first half of 2020 was disastrous for the global travel industry. The coronavirus, and government responses to suppress its spread, saw the travel demand factor began to diminish to near-zero from February onwards. What happened next? By Gary Bowerman.

While tourism sector revenues evaporated, the costs did not. Airlines, hotels, travel agents and tour operators tell tough stories about burning through cash flow. We’ve all seen (and in some cases taken) photographs of empty airports, tourist-free cities, vacant highways and derelict UNESCO sites.

COVID Caution Prevails Worldwide

In some parts of the world, notably South America, Africa and the Middle East, COVID-19 is still raging. India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines are struggling to contain it. Countries that had driven do the curve, such as China, Australia and New Zealand, have exprincd worrying new clusters and outbreaks.

So, 6 months since the first cases of “viral pneumonia“ were reported in Wuhan in late December 2019, let’s rewind – and ask ourselves … “Who could have predicted that in 2020…”

The UNWTO would publish the following phrase: “100% of global destinations now have COVID-19 travel restrictions,” as it did on 28 April.

Singapore Changi Airport, one of Asia’s primary connective hubs that handled 68.3 million passengers in 2019, would operate from just 2 of its 4 terminals, and defer for two years construction of T5.

Any country, let alone all of them, would shut out the world’s largest outbound market: China. Some 155 million Chinese outbound trips were made in 2019. At present, Chinese borders remain closed.

Consumer travel sentiment surveys rather than visitor arrivals, flight seat data and hotel occupancies would shape the forward budgeting and planning of tourism marketers.

The Tokyo Olympics and UEFA European Championships, the two signature sports tourism events of the year, would be postponed until 2021.

Read Gary Bowerman‘s full article here on Travel Daily Media

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and European Championships delayed until 2021 and top matches unable to receive spectators, sports tourism faces a challenging future, says Gary Bowerman.

[This article was published by Channel News Asia (CNA) on 29 May 2020]

Last week, the 2020 World Sports Tourism Congress was due to take place in Lloret de Mar, Spain.

Unsurprisingly, it was postponed.

Conventions are prohibited everywhere, and precious little tourism is occurring anywhere.

To make things worse, sports travel also relies on venue-specific participation, and attendance is banned even at the few professional sports matches currently taking place around the globe.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way: 2020 was primed as a blockbuster year for sports-related travel.

Tokyo was ready to host the Olympic Games while 12 cities in Europe prepared to stage the 2020 UEFA European Championship football tournament.

Instead, COVID-19 shunted both this year’s major sporting events into 2021.

A HIGH-GROWTH TRAVEL SECTOR

Travelling to experience the thrill of live sporting action has witnessed huge growth in the past decade.

According to the World Travel Organization (UNWTO), the global sports tourism industry is worth US$800 million – amounting to about 10 per cent of the global tourism pie.

“More and more tourists are interested in sport activities during their trips, whether sports are the main objective of travel or not,” says the World Travel Organization (UNWTO), which organises the World Sports Tourism Congress.

It adds that “Sports events can be a catalyst for tourism development if successfully leveraged in terms of destination branding, infrastructure development and other economic and social benefits.”

From being a niche sector, sports travel has entered the mainstream.

Many national tourism boards, such as in Australia and Singapore, have dedicated sports travel sections on their websites, and specialist sports tour firms and premium ticket sellers regularly exhibit at travel shows.

“The increasing lure of sports tourism is also reflected through the growing linkage between travel brands and major sports event sponsorships.”

The increasing lure of sports tourism is also reflected through the growing linkage between travel brands and major sports event sponsorships.

For example, Airbnb is an official Tokyo Olympics sponsor and Booking.com is an official partner of the UEFA European Championships.

Airlines are also closely aligned to major events. Emirates Airline is an associate partner of the Australian Open tennis tournament, while Qatar Airways was an official partner of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

In 2018, an executive from Spain’s La Liga made a football tourism presentation at ITB Asia, the region’s largest travel trade show, in Singapore.

In addition, top sports clubs and franchises, tournament and TV rights holders and sponsors have become proficient at marketing sports travel experiences.

These often include match-day tickets, guided stadium tours, player meet-and-greet sessions and exclusive take-home souvenirs.

“Apart from a handful of football and rugby leagues playing games in empty stadiums and charity golf events in the US, no top-level sport is taking the field.”

But a high hurdle exists for sports tourism to recover. For leisure and business travel, COVID-19 travel bans, lockdowns and quarantines removed the critical demand factor.

A phased lifting of these restrictions should unlock at least some pent-up demand.

The same demand constraints exist in sports tourism, but they are compounded by a supply deficit.

Apart from a handful of football and rugby leagues playing games in empty stadiums and charity golf events in the US, no top-level sport is taking the field.

SUMMER WITHOUT SPORTS

The Tokyo Olympics and UEFA European Championships have created a large hole in sports tour scheduling.

The Olympics is an interesting case, because hosting the Games rarely generates the tourism flows that host cities expect.

This is often due to over-pricing of hotel rooms and flights, and ticket allocation measures that favour domestic fans over incoming visitors.

Host governments pair the sporting action with a relentless two-week tourism promotion campaign showcasing the country’s diverse attributes to TV viewers worldwide.

“The Olympics is an interesting case, because hosting the Games rarely generates the tourism flows that host cities expect.”

The goal is to incentivise more tourists to visit later in the year, once the gold medals have been won, packed and shipped.

In short, the Olympics allows the host country to showcase its tourism offerings to the rest of the world.

By contrast, the UEFA European Championships would have generated large tourism flows as football is a very tribal sport that attracts stadiums of fans.

Moreover, the tournament is more of a travel event as games are held in many different major cities so there is more of a multi-destination tourism experience.

Played during Europe’s peak season months of June and July, it brings together the continent’s 24 top national teams to play at marquee stadiums in 12 tourism-friendly cities, such as Amsterdam, Budapest, Copenhagen, London, Rome and St Petersburg.

Advance ticket sales were impressive – around 3 million tickets were on sale and UEFA reported that it had received 28 million ticket applications – while bars, cafes, hotels, tour guides and ride-sharing apps in each city were expecting a stellar summer.

But the Olympics and UEFA 2020 are not the only signature sporting events unable to deliver significant tourism spend this time round.

“There will be no Tour de France or Wimbledon this summer, several F1 Grand Prix races are postponed and the Indian Premier League missed its prime April slot.”

There will be no Tour de France or Wimbledon this summer, and several F1 Grand Prix races are postponed. The Indian Premier League missed its prime April slot, although it may still be played in October.

In Singapore, the International Champions Cup football tournament, which entices Europe’s star-studded teams to play at the National Stadium – and is supported by the Singapore Tourism Board – is taking an enforced year out as large-scale events and public gatherings are still prohibited by the government due to COVID-19.

Football is facing a spiralling financial shock from COVID-19.

Europe’s four biggest football leagues – all of which regularly attract tourist fans from around the world – have worked hard to restart their truncated seasons.

At present, Germany’s Bundesliga is playing matches in closed stadiums with piped-in crowd noise, with Spain’s La Liga following suit on Jun 8, England’s Premier League on Jun 17 and Italy’s Serie A on Jun 20.

SILENT STADIUMS UNTIL 2021?

Looking ahead, the US Open golf major has been postponed until mid-September, while Australia retains hopes of hosting the 2020 T20 Cricket World Cup in October.

Neither event is certain to go ahead  but if they do, spectator numbers will either be heavily reduced or, more likely, locked out as general anxiety and fears of COVID-19 will curtail attendance.

Similar uncertainty surrounds the Singapore Grand Prix – whose organisers have said they are unwilling to stage a closed-door race – and the rescheduled French Open tennis tournament in September, which also faces a potential player boycott as it is due to be staged only a week after the US Open finishes.

“Much depends on the feared coronavirus second wave, which would likely hit in the later part of the year.”

The sports and tourism industries are palpably aware that rebooting sports-related travel is impossible while public access to matches and events is prohibited.

Much depends on the feared coronavirus second wave, which would likely hit in the later part of the year.

The US’ top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, who is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in a public webinar earlier this month that a second round of COVID-19 cases is “inevitable” as “the virus is so transmissible and it’s globally spread”, and that Americans should prepare for “a bad fall and a bad winter.”

Even without a viral resurgence, the travel fear factor is hard to forecast – especially for long-haul trips.

Travel considerations aside, some sports leagues do not even foresee a return to stadium crowds until at least 2021.

So, for now, travel and sports fans have little option but to switch on the TV, and imagine ourselves sitting among the cardboard cut-out spectators placed around Germany’s grand football stadiums or watch re-runs of their favourite sporting teams and heroes.

—

Gary Bowerman is Director of Check-in Asia, and an experienced Asia tourism and consumer analyst and media commentator. He spent six years living and working in China, and has been based in Kuala Lumpur since 2010. He is the author of The New Chinese Traveler: Business Opportunities from the Chinese Travel Revolution and co-host of The South East Asia Travel Show podcast.

This week, Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman was interviewed by acclaimed travel industry portal Skift for three in-depth articles.

The first focused on the concept of “travel bubbles”, the second on India’s potential role in the post-COVID-19 tourism order, and the third piece addressed whether Maldives may become a desirable reboot destination for Asia travellers.

Gary’s comments for each piece are listed below, together with links to the full article.

Who Will Come Last in Global Travel’s Staged Recovery?

This article addressed the rise of the “travel bubble,” and the prospect that the global tourism recovery is looking a lot more uneven than previously expected.

—– Gary Bowerman, a tourism and consumer analyst focused on Asia, recently wrote about how travel’s rebound is going to become an “entrenched political issue.”

“Most countries are watching each other at the moment and trying to see who moves first, and I think Australia and New Zealand are probably a better place to do that, because they are more remote island nations and they are able to open up between them,” Bowerman told Skift. “How that goes forward for the rest of the world we’ll need to see. I think a lot of the initial moves will come from Asia Pacific just because the virus was here first.”

“We really don’t know at the moment whether consumers are going to feel comfortable traveling long haul on a long flight.”

In addition to its past learnings from SARS and MERS, Bowerman notes, there is also a higher level of trust and closer ties between nations in the region, and governments broadly displayed competency in the crisis relative to other regions of the world. Inter-Asia leisure and business travel is higher now than it was during SARS, meaning a regional comeback would be meaningful even if long-haul travel is still a long way off.

“We really don’t know at the moment what’s going to happen with long haul travel … we don’t know whether consumers are going to feel comfortable traveling long haul on long flights,” Bowerman said. “This move we’re seeing in some countries is to open up first to domestic travel and see how that goes, perhaps look at the options of regional travel bubbles or regional strategic partnerships — I think that’s what we’re going to see, certainly for a few months.” —–

Read the full article here

Where Is India Outbound Tourism in Asia’s Post-Pandemic Recovery Order?

While much of the global tourism discussion during COVID-19 has focused on China, this article argues that India assert a greater influence in the coming months and years…

—– While it’s clear that India was already a coveted tourist source market for several Asia Pacific destinations prior to coronavirus, Kuala Lumpur-based tourism analyst Gary Bowerman thinks what the pandemic opens up is an unprecedented chance for India to use its outbound tourism as a strategic tool in post-crisis recovery.

“I think we’ll see a much more strategically aggressive India in the aftermath of the virus, largely because a lot of Western nations will scrupulously review their relations with China.”

“I think we’ll see a much more strategically aggressive India in the aftermath of the virus, largely because a lot of Western nations will scrupulously review their relations with China,” he said.

India, constrained by its own political structure, had been less active in engaging with other countries besides its immediate neighbors, he added, which contrasted with China’s aggressive push into Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, among others, through its Belt and Road Initiative.

“India has a lot of cards to play in the coming months, and tourism may be one of them.”

However, the widespread global anger with China for its early-stage management of coronavirus, and how it has used tourism as a political tool in the past, may come back to bite the country, Bowerman remarked.

Herein, he added, lies the “opportunity” for India to step up its engagement with regional neighbors as well as Europe and the United States.

“India has a lot of cards to play in the coming months, and tourism may be one of them,” said Bowerman. —–

Read the full article here

When You Don’t Have Any Domestic Tourism to Rely On: Maldives as a Pandemic Case Study

This article addressed the challenges and opportunities for Maldives as Asian travellers seek safe destinations for post-lockdown travel.

—– Gary Bowerman, director of tourism intelligence and marketing for Check-in Asia, on the other hand, expressed skepticism about the scale and scope of Chinese outbound travel this year owing to the extreme caution the Chinese government would go to prevent a second wave of infection. “The Maldives is also a fairly long flight from China, and I wonder if the first wave of [Chinese] post-pandemic out-bounders will select shorter air trips,” he said. —–

Read the full article here

Business travellers have long been targeted by hackers and malware malcontents while on the road. Lockdowns are now bringing those technical threats into the home.

“How come there is no cure for a virus that can be killed by soap?”

At first glance, I thought this was just another of those glib memes suffusing social media.

But it loosened a cog in my head. Are the answers to today’s toughest conundrums hiding in plain sight? Or are low-tech solutions all we have for some vexing challenges?

Shortly after spotting this rhetorical question on Twitter, I read that “50 potential vaccines and nearly 100 potential treatment drugs” for COVID-19 are in development.

We will all, presumably, require vaccination in future to be permitted to travel. But for now, the best we have are hand-sanitisers, standing two metres apart and virtual trips.

“We will all, presumably, require vaccination in future to be able to travel. For now, hand-washing, standing two metres apart and virtual trips are our best shots.”

Making Sense of Science

For most of us, COVID-19 remains enigmatic. We have absorbed a great deal of science so far this year, but the intricacies are confusing. Will we ever understand the coronavirus’s variegated impacts on different bodily mechanics?

Despite reading every report I can find, I freely shrug and hold up my hands about “asymptomatic transmission” and the efficacy of antibody test kits.

And that may just be the point we are at right now.

“2020 has taught us a great deal about things we never anticipated needing to know. But chasmic gaps remain between our knowledge base and our behaviour.”

Reappraising New Realities

So far, 2020 has taught us a great deal about things we never anticipated needing to know. But chasmic gaps remain between our knowledge base and our behaviour.

Take, for example, the fact that a virus for which the highest national mortailty rate is 14.3% (Belgium) has instigated “the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression,” according to the IMF.

Shfits in basic understanding are causing us to constantly reappraise the future. While we may feel hopeful, the statistics beat us back down. In the travel sector, for example, we are vicariously traversing an ever-more apocalyptic landscape:

–       96% of all worldwide destinations have imposed travel restrictions (UNWTO)

–       USD314 billion; the estimated drop in 2020 airline revenues vs 2019 (IATA)

–       75 million travel and tourism jobs are at risk across the globe (WTTC)

It’s little surprise, therefore, that Singapore Airlines says it is “confronting its greatest challenge in history,” or that Marriott’s CEO believes many hotels may never reopen. Indonesia’s President Widodo estimates the economic cost to the country’s tourism industry will surpass USD100 billion.

Hack to the Future?

Because most of us are unable to take a plane, stay in a hotel or even visit the office, we are buying into a notion that the future of business communications is online.

Using overloaded wifi networks. And overly trusted applications. While hackers rub their hands with glee.

It feels like we haven’t learned very much.

In the late 2000s, nearly 10 years after the Millennium Bug, several business magazine articles addressed a common concern. I know this because I was commissioned to write some of them.

These pieces queried the wisdom of travellers using insecure wifi networks in airports and hotels.

A lethal cocktail of open-source software, flimsy anti-virus protection and public-access wifi rendered company databases and technical systems vulnerable to misuse.

“Business travellers using insecure wifi networks in airports and hotels have long mixed a lethal cocktail of open-source software and flimsy anti-virus protection.”

Are We Properly Encrypted?

Fast-forward to the 2020 lockdowns, and the cross-hairs have shifted into our own homes.

Over the past week, I have registered for two Asia-based webinars. Both times, I gave up halfway through because the wifi support was insufficiently robust. Anyone watching the One World Together At Home online concert will have experienced variable broadcast quality. TV news interviews via VOIP suffer similar issues.

Ah yes, but surely 5G will deliver us to a promised land free of buffered slides and badly vocodered speakers?

Perhaps. But a lesson of COVID-19 is that we are less technically prepared than we assumed.

Many of us attempt group chats and e-conferences using applications that – I can attest from personal experience – can be remotely disrupted. We freely download photogenic “meeting backdrops” without checking if they are properly encrypted.

“We freely download photogenic ‘meeting backdrops’ without checking if they are properly encrypted.”

Daily usage of laptops and phones at home is creating a dream-like flow of continuous data for hackers and spammers. Sophisticated malware attacks are being made possible by our rudimentary grasp of how to protect ourselves when the office technical support line is engaged.

As business travellers, we invariably felt a degree of technical comfort when arriving home. The voracious online wolves were less likely to hack us behind our front doors. They preferred the unprotected prairies of hotel rooms, airport lounges and coffee shops.

COVID-19 has debunked that myth. Everyone everywhere is fair game now.

Let’s hope that long hours in isolation will result in new solutions for the infrastructure vulnerabilities that present a clear and present danger.

We have more than enough webinar apps and backdrop downloads to be going on with.

In the meantime, pass me the soap!

——

Gary Bowerman is Director of Check-in Asia and Co-host of The South East Asia Travel Show. He is the author of The New Chinese Traveler: Business Challenges from the Chinese Travel Revolution.

Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman appeared live on Asia Tonight, the prime time evening news show on CNA (Channel New Asia), on 16 March. The show discussed the escalating impact of COVID-19 on Asia’s tourism economy.

On the day that Australia announced an unprecedented travel ban and Malaysia ordered its citizens to stay home for 14 days and closed its borders, Gary was given three challenging questions to answer:

1) Are the wave of travel restrictions we are seeing unprecedented?

2) Which economies here in Asia will be hardest hit?

3) How much help will tourism-related businesses need to get back on their feet?

Click here to watch the interview. Let us know if you agree or disagree with the points Gary made!

The global infrastructure of travel has incurred incalculable damage because of the coronavirus outbreak. But, does the downturn provide a chance to radically rethink and reboot tourism? Here are 6 pointers to ponder…

Confirmed cases in 113 countries. Empty airports. Cancelled flights. Refunded hotel bookings. Postponed conferences, concerts and sports events. Travellers consumed by fear. Tourism companies confronting eye-watering losses. Stock values crashing.

This is how the coronavirus outbreak has devastated the travel industry in just 51 days. (The WHO’s first Coronavirus Situation Report was published on 21 January.)

Evidently, there was little pre-planning to deal with this outbreak. A lack of readiness, allied with a negligent approach by the US and several European governments, has made the effects bite even deeper.

The only positive way to approach the crisis may be to view it as a time to pause, reflect – and reboot the way that travel works.

With that objective in mind, here is a Wishlist for the Post-COVID-19 Travel Recovery. We considered 4 key areas:

·       What has been damaged, or badly broken?

·       What simply isn’t working?

·       What needs a reboot?

·       What should be discarded entirely?

Here are six brief pointers….

1) No more ‘tourism at any price’ mentality.

Prioritising volume-at-all-costs tourism has weakened the travel industry’s foundations. This is exemplified by meaningless “Visit Country X” promotions. These year-long national campaigns distort markets, dilute creative marketing and promote overtourism. They also encourage heavy discounting (and, paradoxically, price gouging on the ground) in order to hit a neatly rounded government-prescribed target figure. The impact on the environment is not even considered. Travellers simply become a statistic.

2) Strategic discounting is inevitable, but excessive price cuts will weaken the rebound.

The global downturn has revealed the true extent of over-capacity in travel. Airlines and hotels have vast capacities to fill, and the default way of doing so is to drop rates. But, when the rebound does come, will sustained discounting prove to be an incentive for travellers who want, and feel comfortable, to travel again? Or will it simply reinforce demand for cut-priced travel, and re-set the same repetitive pattern?

“If we didn’t know it before, the past two months have reconfirmed the global economic importance of travel.”

3) Tourism employs 1 in 10 people globally, and is a valuable sector to work in.

The past two months have reconfirmed the global economic importance of travel. But how can tourism, not just hotel management, make itself a more desirable career path for young people? Across the industry, we may see a widespread shedding of staff. There will, however, be opportunities to create new skills training and development programmes. Building an international career in a fast-changing industry, especially one that is reconfiguring its future, should be viewed positively.

4) Countries take a cohesive approach to inbound, outbound & domestic travel.

For too long, inbound and outbound travel have dominated. Domestic tourism tends to creep under the radar, and attracts far less marketing and media spend. But, we are seeing coronavirus contingency planning across Asia rely heavily on homegrown travel. Will this endure into the recovery period? Shouldn’t domestic travel be more than simply a safer, second-best option? How can secondary and tertiary destinations be effectively promoted? What innovative methods can be deployed to use domestic travel data to build new products and services for inbound visitors? Would this same data enable overseas destinations to gain a nuanced understanding of travellers to their countries? 

“We are seeing coronavirus contingency planning across Asia rely heavily on homegrown domestic travel.”

5) Innovative marketing strategies to attract tourists, and drive repeat visits.

Loyalty is in short supply. Experiential young travel consumers rarely wish to retrace their footsteps, or selfie spots. While first-time arrivals are viewed as ripe fruit, return visitors tend to spend more in dispersed locations. So product teams can use the downtime to research and learn, and destination marketers can refocus their creative talents. Not every trick or tactic will work. That’s a given in positive or gloomy times. But marketers must be encouraged to make mistakes. Finding new solutions to diversify source markets, build niche capabilities and fashion market-leading products and services will help unlock the hoped-for rebound. 

“Finding new solutions to diversify source markets, build niche capabilities and fashion market-leading products and services will help unlock the hoped-for travel rebound.” 

6) Real lessons can be learned from the COVID-19 influences on consumer behaviour.

Social distancing has altered the lifestyle balance, and the way people interact on a daily basis. For example, staying at home and not travelling may make consumers more attuned to their own health and wellness. This focus on wellbeing could create new behavioural drivers, especially for dining, spa experiences and health tourism. 

In China, we’ve seen a massive rise in gaming, live streaming and vicarious virtual travel. How can these trends be tapped? Will we see less winter travel in future for fear that a similar outbreak may occur? Some countries have issued revised visa restrictions, and even temporary blanket banks – will these be lifted immediately, or in phases?. And will travellers book holidays and business trips on an even shorter timeline to cut the risk of cancellation?

As a final (rather depressing) thought: a COVID-19-style outbreak is very likely to occur again. This doubles the jeopardy. Governments, tourism boards, airport operators, airlines, travel agents, tour operators, hotels, OTAs et al must firstly ride out the current crisis. But they also need to plan ahead for a potential repeat… in the not-too-distant future.

While we ponder what might be, there is a great deal of constructive thinking to be done.

—-

Gary Bowerman is director of Check-in Asia, and an Asia travel, tourism and consumer trends analyst and speaker. He is also co-host of The South East Asia Travel Show podcast. Listen here: https://spoti.fi/2Iyy7vP.

On 22 January, as the Chinese New Year holiday neared, Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman was invited by Singapore-based CNA (Channel News Asia) to discuss the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak live on air.

In a broad-ranging interview, Gary was asked questions about the potential impact for the tourism sector in China, across Asia and worldwide over the Chinese New Year. He also discussed how the travel sector may respond, both during and after the Golden Week holiday period.

This was Gary’s second appearance on CNA in recent months. In October 2019, he was invited onto the CNA evening news show to discuss the permanent ban on tourists climbing Uluru in Australia, and other issues relating to sustainable Asia Pacific.

Listen here to a special coronavirus edition of Gary’s podcast, The South East Asia Travel Show.

Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman is co-host of a new podcast discussing the hottest travel topics in South East Asia, the world’s myst dynamic tourism region.

Officially launched in January 2020, The South East Asia Travel Show promises a fresh, insightful and fun perspective on tourism in the region. South East Asia’s travel sector is thriving. It topped the UNWTO’s 2019 World Tourism Barometer for tourist arrivals vs. 2018, with a 7.8% increase. Almost 140 million visitors travelled to the 10 countries of South East Asia in 2020, nearly double the 70.5 million in 2010.

The South East Asia Travel Show will map out the shifting tourism landscapes of the 10 countries in ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

The show will analyse the emerging influences on inbound, outbound, domestic and intra-ASEAN tourism, keep a close eye on influential regional markets, such as China, India, Korea and Japan, and assess the opportunities and challenges for travel brands, airlines, hotels, tourism operators and investors.

Released in January 2020, the show’s offical launch featured the two-part ’20 for the 2020s Travel Wishlist.’ Gary and Hannah gaze into the future to analyse the 20 things they’d most like to see happen in travel and tourism before the end of the decade. Two pilot shows were also posted in December 2019, including a mini round-up of the 2019 tourism year in South East Asia.

We also want to make The South East Asia Travel Show an interactive experience, and invite listeners to send their comments, insights, ideas and feedback via: 

Facebook: @TheSEATravelShow

Twitter: @SEATravelShow

Instagram: @seatravelshow

Linked In: The South East Asia Travel Show

Email: [email protected]

Check-in Asia’s Gary Bowerman was invited onto the Singapore-based Channel News Asia’s evening news show to discuss key tourism issues.

Smart Cities are a contentious subject because they plan to integrate and utilise the vast streams of data they generate. Much of this data, of course, is your data.  Check-in Asia produced a Thought Leadership piece for FCM Travel about some of the potential benefits and challenges of Smart Cities for business travellers in Asia.

Intelligent technology is assisting cities to merge their digital and physical landscapes

For many travellers, the holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia and Oudomxay, the eighth-largest city in Laos, may not seem to share much in common. But both have recently announced they are joining the global race to become Smart Cities.

Bolstered by the impending roll-outs of 5G networks, cities on all continents are using Internet of Things connectivity, intelligent interfaces and machine learning to reboot urban planning and management. Two key objectives are to enhance the quality of life for residents, and optimise the shifting flows of traffic and tourists.

Beyond Digital Payments and Drone Taxis

Business travellers are becoming acquainted with data-driven technologies that makes trips more manageable.

We board planes and trains using QR codes rather than physical tickets.

We pass through customs thanks to biometrics and facial recognition.

At the hotel, we may check-in via a voice-activated kiosk.

Exploring the city, we ride driverless subway trains and pay for products and services by swiping our phones.

And, tests are currently underway for us to fly to meetings in autonomous drone taxis.

Each of these interactions generates unique, invaluable data. But, at present, these data points operate in isolation from each other. Travel-related information collated by an airline, train company, hotel or payment services provider is mostly proprietary.

But imagine an alternative scenario

Smart Cities are designed to unlock the various data blockages encountered during our travels – and reinvigorate the delivery of services that we choose to use.

So, how do Smart Cities actually work…?

Read the full article here.

In tourism terms, 2014 is a distant land. The global travel landscape has transformed over the past 5 years. China is now established at the centre of tourism’s new agenda, while emerging outbound markets are gaining greater attention.

To mark the 5th anniversary since publishing The New Chinese Traveler: Business Opportunities From The Chinese Travel Revolution in September 2014, Check-in Asia‘s Gary Bowerman has produced a series of 3 articles to bridge the gap. 

The New Chinese Traveler was a snapshot of a much longer journey. It aimed to help readers around the world to understand China’s developmental drivers over the past 20 years – and look ahead at how the Chinese travel revolution may progress.

Back in 2014… WeChat was just 3 years old, and QR code payments were nascent at best. Ctrip hadn’t acquired eLong. Or Skyscanner. Fosun was yet to buy Club Med. Fliggy was Alitrip, Meituan and Dianping were separate entities. Hong Kong was a hot destination, and a Chinese passport only provided visa-free/visa-on-arrival access in 45 countries.

From WeChat to ‘China Panic’, via LA, Oxford and Sydney

So, here is our 3-part series discussing the major shifts in Chinese tourism over the past 5 years, and looking ahead to the future of the Chinese Travel Revolution (Click the headlines to read):

Five Years is a Long Time in Chinese Travel & Tourism: Part I

This article sets the scene for China’s transformative impact on the way the global travel industry markets, operates and finances itself.

Five Years is a Long Time in Chinese Travel & Tourism: Part II

We reflect on the insights provided 5 years ago by tourism professionals from Los Angeles, Sydney, Copenhagen, Oxford and Canada about how their destinations were preparing to welcome more Chinese travellers.

Five Years is a Long Time in Chinese Travel & Tourism: Part III

From soaring growth in air routes to the rise of the Adventure Economy and improved data analytics and the “China Panic” , we the 8 headline developments from the past 5 years.

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Check-in Asia has been monitoring and advising on developments in Chinese outbound and domestic travel since 2004. For more details about how we help clients to navigate the fast-changing                  Chinese travel market, please drop us a note.

Selling travel in emerging Asian markets is a nuanced issue in the push for greater digitisation. It’s no secret that that travel industry would like to further consolidate its online bookings.

However, the September 2019 MATTA (Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents) Fair in Kuala Lumpur reinforced the important role of trade-consumer selling.

Held twice annually (although a 3rd show, entitled Malaysia Travel & Tourism Mart (MTTM), will be added in June 2020), the low-frills MATTA Fair is a giant trade sale, with travel agents (primarily), hotels, airlines & cruise operators hawking discounted deals.

Even with 1,400 booths, the three-day event (held on a public holiday weekend) is very, very busy.

During our tour of the MATTA Fair, Check-in Asia was reminded of some key tenets about the shifting demand for travel in South East Asia:

1) Price, value and, especially, discounts are key sales drivers among travel consumers.

2) Asia Pacific is ripe for exploring. This is unsurprising given Malaysia’s strong low-cost carrier culture (it is home to the region’s largest LCC, AirAsia).

3) National Tourism Boards are low-key players – with only 14 exhibiting, and only South Africa from outside of Asia Pacific.

4) While consumer fervour heightens for outbound deals, domestic travel is being increasingly promoted – and heavily discounted.

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For more details about how Check-in Asia supports clients to navigate the fast-changing South East Asian travel landscape, please drop us a note.

Tourism investment in South East Asia has become a hot topic as the demand for travel expands to, from and between the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Check-in Asia has just produced a detailed new report.

“Tourism arrivals to the 10 ASEAN countries have increased from 73.75 million in 2010 to an estimated 129.9 million in 2019 – and a projected 155.4 million in 2022.”

ASEAN: A Dynamic Tourism Region

It is hard to overstate the scale of transformation in South East Asia’s tourism economy over the past decade. Once the slow-paced preserve of budget backpackers, adventure-seekers and luxury travellers retreating to chic resorts and pristine beaches, South East Asia has rebooted into one of the world’s most dynamic tourism regions.

Since 2010, the 10 countries of South East Asia – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – have witnessed a dramatic upsurge in inbound, outbound and domestic travel. As a result, South East Asia’s cities, islands, natural habitats and world heritage monuments are frequently crowded, as are its highways, airports and railways.

In response, each nation has identified its own investment priorities to expand tourism, create new revenues and job opportunities and find ways to overcome the intense pressures on the natural environment.

Check-in Asia spent the first half of 2019 tracking and researching tourism-related investment trends and development across the region. The result is a detailed new report, entitled Tourism Investment in South East Asia, for Mintel.

The report addresses these key questions:

What are the key factors of tourism growth across South East Asia, and how are these factors driving investment patterns in each country?

How are government policies and societal changes shaping the growth of travel in South East Asia?

What are the key investment opportunities and challenges for each country in South East Asia?

Which countries, companies and developmental agencies are funding the next wave of tourism expansion in South East Asia?

To what degree are Asia’s dominant inbound markets – China, India, Japan and South Korea – influencing the future of travel in South East Asia?

Which are the emerging areas for tourism investment, both regionally and in each country?

China is preparing to open the world’s largest airport terminal, Beijing Daxing International Airport. Check-in Asia prepared a short primer for FCM Travel Solutions of the highlights for business travellers at this new gateway to the world’s second largest economy.

Designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) is scheduled to open on 30 September – just in time for the week-long China National Day holiday.

Located 46km south of Beijing, the vast new airport will ultimately count seven runways, and is expected to handle:

45 million passengers annually by 2021

72 million by 2025

100 million by 2040.

Preparations have advanced smoothly, with test flights and operations well underway.

In May, a China Southern A380 became the inaugural test flight to land.

In June, the first routes were annouced, including Busan, Gwangju and Daegu in South Korea, Cairo, Helsinki, Moscow and St Petersburg. Chinese media also reported that 60 global airlines had applied for slots.

In July, full-scale operational tests were completed, including check-in, security and baggage claim.

To read the full article, please click here

From robot mascots to recycled medals and cashless stores, Japan is seeking to create a high-tech legacy from hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

For the past six months, Check-in Asia has been working with Mintel to analyse and place in context new consumer, travel and technology innovations that await visitors and spectators at 2020’s biggest sporting fiesta.

Here are four of our favourites…

Hotel of Jewels

With a glut of new hotels springing up across Japan to accommodate the influx of domestic and foreign visitors, Japanese fashion brand Abiste, which sells imported female jewellery, has designed and opened its first women-only capsule hotel.

Ticketless Rides

A new ticketless boarding system to be launched by Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai) will enable passengers to book tickets online for high-speed shinkansen train trips between Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto – and hop a board using just a smartphone QR code.

Airport Airways

Human behaviour simulation technology is being used to accurately predict the timing and location of airport bottlenecks. The findings will be used by airport managers to more effectively manage peak-period people flows at Japan’s increasingly crowded airports.

Sedan Stadium

Japanese stadiums are introducing new seating modelled on luxury car technology. The premium priced, extra-comfort seats are being installed in selected baseball and soccer stadiums due to host matches during the Olympics.

South Korea’s digitally dynamic capital has evolved into a modern Asian metropolis with futuristic architecture, modern hotels and MICE venues, and a youthful vigour blended with a soulful spirit rooted in nature.

Check-in Asia recently teamed up with The Hotel Expert to produce a feature on the MICE sector in Seoul. Here’s a taster…

Discover Seoul With BTS!

Prior knowledge of Korean pop music is not necessary before visiting Seoul. K-pop superstars BTS, who are honorary ambassadors for Seoul Tourism, seem to smile down from every HDTV screen, blast out from mall speakers and even feature on the Discover Seoul Pass.

Across the city, teenagers also sport lookalike fashions of other popular boy and girl bands, like MONSTA X and BLACKPINK, and Korea’s largest annual arts and culture showcase, C-Festival, also features a K-Pop showcase.

“Wherever we go, people talk about K-pop and K-dramas.”

K-culture, also known as Hallyu, is adding vibrancy to a once austere and unfashionable city of 9.76 million people. Even President Moon Jae-in is a fan. He recently told a conference in Seoul discussing ways to increase the nation’s annual visitor arrivals to 23 million by 2022: “Wherever we go, people talk about K-pop and K-dramas.”

Seoul’s sense of vitality is palpable. “Although Seoul is rapidly growing as one of Asia’s top cities, it is still relatively less known among international clients,” says Alejandro Bernabé, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, which is located in central Gwanghwamun district. “But it is well known for its advanced IT technology, K-pop, K-beauty and K-fashion, which make it desirable for event organisers seeking a ‘new’ destination.”

Read the full article here