The growth of the global travel industry will be driven by emerging Asian cities, many of which people still haven’t heard of, and some of which still haven’t been built, according to a new study.
A new report into the future of travel, commissioned by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), found that Asian travellers will account for one third of the world’s travel spend by 2020. It also predicted the emergence of new kinds of traveller and the rise of lesser-known Asian cities, especially in China and India, that will shape the future of travel in the rest of the decade.
While the study did identify “new global explorers” – travellers from high-growth countries such as China and India – as wanting to follow well-trodden paths and visit must-see sights, it also pointed to the rise of city breaks to as-yet-unknown secondary and tertiary urban centres, some of which haven’t been built yet.
“Some 400 largely unknown mid-size cities in emerging markets – predominantly China and India – will generate 40% of global economic growth over the next decade and beyond,” the IHG report stated.
“In 20 years, room demand in India will overtake the USA and China and travellers will be staying in cities which may not even be built yet. We have long term commitments and ambition for India – we’ve been here since 1962 and we intend to be leading this dynamic market well into the future,” said Jan Smits, IHG’s Chief Executive for Asia, the Middle East & Africa.
As well as unknown cities, the IHG report identified previously unknown traveller types as having the potential to shape the industry over the coming years. The so-called “invisible traveller” was identified as a person who has almost no human interaction during their entire trip, from planning to booking online, to checking-in at the airport, ordering room service and even concierge services.
This ties in with another breed of business traveller, identified as “laptop and latte workers”, who tend to work remotely from coffee shops and other Wi-Fi connected places.
