Shaping the Future of Travel – Part One
Travel Daily Media has teamed-up with Amadeus to showcase its new whitepaper report, “Shaping The Future of Travel: the big FOUR travel effects”.
Over the coming weeks we will be publishing six different sections of the report, aiming to define the factors that are set to shape the future of the travel industry across Asia Pacific in the coming decades. Happy reading!
WEEK ONE:
“Shaping The Future of Travel: the big FOUR travel effects” is the most comprehensive study into travel behaviour across Asia Pacific between now and 2030.
As an independent study of Asia Pacific, by Asia Pacific for Asia Pacific, conducted by Frost and Sullivan and commissioned by Amadeus, it helps the travel industry understand what opportunities lie ahead, whether they’re travel agencies, airlines, accommodation or transport providers, in the face of new technologies, increasing wealth, population increase and changing traveller behaviour.
It researched seven markets: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Australia using qualitative, quantitative, industry and consumer opinions.
The result is a regionally-focused whitepaper, and four ‘spotlight’ whitepapers on Australia, India, China and Japan.
In short, the study aimed to answer the following key questions:
• How will Asia Pacific’s travel sector evolve over the next 10-15 years?
• What are the key consumer trends/factors that will drive change in travel?
• What impact will economic, technology, social, environmental and geopolitical trends have on the end-traveller experience?
• What should airlines, travel agencies and corporations need to consider doing now to encourage their success in travel in Asia Pacific in the future?
The research identified four dominant themes, or effects, that will fundamentally shape the future of the travel industry in the Asia Pacific region to 2030:
1. The Me Effect represents the fragmentation of the travel market into ever-increasing niches.
2. The Red Tape Effect refers to the breaking down of barriers to travel within the Asia Pacific region through a reduction in administration, the introduction of technology to automate processes, and an increase in integration as the region converges.
3. The Leapfrog Effect implies something that jumps over or ahead of something else to gain advantage, or skips certain steps in a process. In this case, it’s traditional behaviours in the fields of technology, infrastructure and behaviours across APAC.
4. The Barbell Effect refers to growth at extremes of the spectrum, particularly at the upper and lower ends of the travel market – the emerging middle class and super rich.
The predominant observation is that as economies in the region come together, driven both by a narrowing of the wealth gap between developed and emerging economies, and greater liberalisation of trade and of travel and access to travel products, travel behaviour will actually become more individualised.
This means that a much greater variety of people will be travelling, for a more divergent set of reasons, with a much broader range of aspirations, behaviours and expectations from the travel experience.
The next edition of the Amadeus “Shaping The Future of Travel: the big FOUR travel effects” report will be available on Tuesday 5th March 2013