ALTM 2010 Ultratravel Forum predicts bullish growth

Keynote speakers and panellists at the Asia Luxury Travel Market (ALTM) Ultratravel Forum, the opening event of ALTM 2010, all believe that Asia Pacific and particularly China will experience an inbound and outbound travel explosion over the next few years.

Charles Goddard, Asia Pacific editorial director, Economist Intelligence Unit, speaking at the ALTM Ultratravel Forum, said the recent global financial crisis had tilted the economic gravity of the world from west to east, particularly China and India. 

He said China, despite the crisis, and because of economic stimulus packages, had continued to grow in the last 18 months by between eight and nine per cent and this shift would be even more dramatic if China became more consumption driven as opposed to export led which is beginning to happen.

“Asia was the growth market ‘par-excellence’ with 50 per cent of global consumption being centred in the region in the next four to five years. An explosion in travel would be an offshoot of this phenomenon,” said Goddard.

Nick Debnam, partner in charge, consumer markets, KPMG, China, said China was the second largest market for global consumer brands having surpassed the US in the last 12 months.  

“It will become the number one market overtaking Japan in the next two years. Brand recognition is high and the reason for purchase is shifting from ‘showing off’ to ‘self reward’,” he said.

“This highlights the willingness of people to be open to an ‘experience’ which bodes well for the travel industry.” 

To meet expectations however, the forum heard, more Mandarin speakers need to be engaged in overseas markets to satisfy the needs of not only luxury Chinese buyers but also travellers.

Companies offering services also need to have a solid internet marketing and fulfilment strategy given the high new media usage in China.

Panellists endorsed the views of the keynote speakers and felt the best way to penetrate and provide luxury travel services to wealthy Chinese was for tour operators to create more personalised services and packages. The provision of these services is in its infancy offering opportunities for experienced western operators to enter the China market and localise their international offerings.

The establishment of creative and effective new media marketing channels and strategies is an area operators are now urgently addressing.

Debbie Joslin, exhibition director for ALTM said: “The staging of the Forum provided a great opportunity for both suppliers and buyers to gain insight into the region’s future prospects for the luxury travel industry and aspects of development that they should be focusing on in order to take advantage of the growth potential coming out of the region”. 

The ALTM Ultratravel Forum featured high profile panellists who tackled upcoming issues in the luxury travel industry. This year’s topic for debate was ‘Is China/Asia Pacific set to become the world’s largest market for luxury travel?’. Panellists included Guy Crawford CEO Jumeirah, Andrew Jessop, vice president Asia for Langham Hotels, Kent Zhu, group director of sales and marketing, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Reena Ho-Phang, managing director of BrandStory and Naysla Edwards, director travel benefits, membership travel services, American Express International.

In 2011, the event will change its name to ILTM Asia.  This name change reflects the fact that Asia Pacific offers a world of growing opportunities for the international travel community and the region is undoubtedly now on a global platform.  ILTM Asia will take place in Shanghai from June 13 to 16 2011.