Here’s a 60-second speed-read of Asia Travel Re:Set Issue #112 – 5 Travel Recovery Stories You May Have Missed This Week in Asia Pacific!, published on 18 June 2023.
Read Asia Travel Re:Set Issue 112 in full HERE
The travel recovery remains a work in progress across Asia Pacific, so here’s a summary of 5 key developments this week.
1) Global Air Travel: 2019 vs 2023: The Unexplained Gap
The above graphic is from this week’s OAG Webinar, on which I was a guest. We discussed the latest air and travel industry trends worldwide. Although the travel industry uses 2019 as a benchmark for a “full recovery”, the above graph shows it’s an economic falsity. Without a pandemic, air travel would have likely continued growing from 2020-2022. The orange line on the main graph represents 3% annual compound growth, revealing a potential capacity gap of 76 million airline seats in the pandemic era.
2) Gradual Recovery for Group Tours from China
“Domestic package tour revenue has already surpassed the 2019 level, while recovery of the outbound package tour business is still very limited,” said Cindy Wang, CFO of Ctrip, last week. There are various reasons, as explained in this week’s full newsletter. Overall, package tour revenue in Q1 for Ctrip represented 37% of the same 2019 period.
3) Visitor Economy Diversification in Australia
This week, Austrade launched a discussion paper, International Diversification Strategy for the Visitor Economy. The stated objective is to “grow emerging visitor markets and build market share in the Indo-Pacific region.” The report identifies “10 international markets of primary interest.” Only two of these 10 markets are located outside Asia Pacific.
4) Will Bali’s ‘Mountain Tourism’ Ban Actually Happen?
As mentioned in Issue #111 (4 June), Bali’s Governor, Wayan Koster, announced a ban on tourism activities at all mountains in Bali. This week, Indonesia’s Tourism & Creative Economy Minister, Sandiaga Uno, said the issue was still under discussion. “Let’s wait to see how the policy will be adopted,” he said.
5) Regenerative Tourism Policy Agenda in New Zealand
This week, Aotearoa New Zealand’s Tourism Minister Peeni Henare issued a draft Tourism Environment Action Plan, noting “The health of the natural environment is integral to our tourism offering.” The policy goal is to “shift tourism to a regenerative model that gives back more than it takes from people, communities and the environment.”