Tourism Set To Explode In ASEAN But First…

“People were keen to get out of cities and into the countryside, up into the highlands or to the beaches. We actually saw a surprising number of people shifting up a star rating. They weren’t necessarily looking for the cheapest trip.” Benito C. Bengzon Jr., Undersecretary for Tourism Development, Department of Tourism, Philippines noted that even before the onset of COVID-19, the Philippines enjoyed a healthy domestic tourism sector, registering 110 million domestic trips that generated revenue five times bigger than revenue from inbound trips. “What we’ve seen over the last couple of months is that there’s been a lot of interest in opening up travel bubbles. We’ve been talking very closely, for example, with our partners in Korea. What we’ve found is that there continues to be very strong demand for our island destinations,” Benito added.

This was conveyed during a session organised by Maybank Kim Eng in its “Is ASEAN Tourism Dead” webinar attended by various panelists including Benito, Tim Hughes of Agoda and Deputy CEO of Central Plaza Hotel Group.
Hughes added, that when consumers come back, they will come back for domestic first: the driveable markets around them, two to three hours outside of their capital city. But then very quickly, they will be prepared to get back on airplanes. This was evident in Thailand, Vietnam and to a lesser extent, Malaysia he said.

However, before we see throve of tourist in the region unleashing their pent up desire to travel again Covid-19 cases will have to come down and vaccination rates must increase! There is no two ways about it, Europe has started to accept visitors but has also applied rules for those vaccinated and those who have not. Most countries have stricter terms for those who have yet to be inoculated. “This crisis taught us one thing: it had no impact on the long term desire of consumers to travel. Just the first announcement of the Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble saw a 14-times spike in our searches for those destinations; while with the very brief Singapore-Australia bubble, we saw a three times increase. Even when something is just an idea or concept, we see a spike,” Tim said.

The return of international visitors is important to the recovery of the tourism industry in ASEAN. This is especially true for Chinese tourists, whom accounted for a quarter of total tourist arrivals in ASEAN during pre-COVID times in 2019, based on Maybank Kim Eng Research data. Markland Blaiklock, Deputy CEO, Central Plaza Hotel Group is optimistic. “Definitely, Chinese tourists will return. The pace remains to be seen, but I’m sure the demand is as strong as ever, if not stronger. People from China will be looking for more varied experiences and sampling other things that they perhaps didn’t in the past,” he said. To support the return of international visitors, the panel was unanimous that countries are unlikely to wait for a return to zero cases before resuming travel. Instead, vaccination rates and health and safety protocols are seen as key to full reopening. Benito remarked: “If you find a single shoplifter in the supermarket, would you have to close down the whole store? In some ways, it’s the same case for tourism. All of us must do our best to keep the number of cases down and to make sure that the protocols are in place in the event we detect a positive case.”

The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are expected to have 70% of their populations vaccinated by the end of 2021, according to data compiled by Maybank Kim Eng Research. The full reopening of ASEAN’s six largest countries for tourism is expected in early 2022. Tim posited that the technology for a vaccine passport could be developed quickly, given the travel industry’s years of experience in building fintech solutions.

Previous articleWORQ Launches Free Smart Matching SPARQ App To Catalyse Malaysia’s Gig Economy
Next articleAfter Talks With Minister, Is Stellantis Setting Up An EV Plant In Malaysia?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here