Asia’s strong and developing economies are having a ‘tail-wind’ effect on the region’s travel industry with a high and continuing rate of growth and change in 2006/07 says Abacus International. The company’s President and CEO Don Birch said that strong 5.3% year on year airline passenger growth in Asia Pacific and historically high aircraft load factors of 74.6% during 2006 reported by IATA, tell only part of the story.

“Rapidly growing economies, vast travel infrastructure projects afoot in China and India, unprecedented order books for new planes, the rise of low cost carriers and the internet channel all add to a picture of dynamic change, while the travellers themselves are often on the move for new reasons,” Mr Birch said.

“While a certain rate of change is a given in the travel industry, it is clear that the current economic tailwind is significantly boosting the rate of growth and change in the industry”

“While the rapid growth in the travel industry is delivering potentially rich rewards as hotels and airlines return to profitability, it also poses industry operators many challenges as they position to compete in the emerging environment, bringing a risk of growing pains for the industry and traveller alike” Mr Birch added.

Growing again

Judged by travel numbers alone, the travel industry as a whole has now recovered from the lows of 9/11, SARS and the 2005 Asian Tsunami, although communities in the path of the Tsunami are no doubt still deeply affected in other ways.

“Coming off a low base after 9/11, SARS and the Tsunami, the initial rate of recovery was artificially high. While the growth rate is now slowing, it is nonetheless high, and even more importantly, sustainably high,” Mr Birch said.

The next five years will see a slower but still robust period of passenger growth for the airline industry. IATA is projecting 5.9% passenger growth for Asia Pacific in 2007, and an average aggregate growth rate (AAGR) of 5.7% through to 2010, the second highest regional growth rate behind the Middle East which is on track for an AAGR of 6.9% to 2010.

Projections by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) confirm this optimistic view, with the UNWTO predicting continued 4% growth in tourist numbers for Asia in 2007. At 5% per annum, the number of travellers would double in 14 years to almost 300 million regional travellers per year by 2020.

Commenting on Asia Pacific’s 8.3% tourism growth in the first eight months of 2006, the UNWTO observed that “the region’s overall performance is remarkable, especially considering that the tourism sector has continued to suffer this year from a succession of natural disasters, health scares and political unrest.”

In a year also disrupted by bomb plots at Heathrow and the Thailand coup, there were no widespread cancellations following the Bangkok bombs, and only a brief dip of 5-10% in hotel occupancy in the Thai capital.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Travel. Tags: airline Asia Asia Pacific Asian Bangkok China Heathrow Hotel Occupancy Hotels India Middle East Occupancy Projects Thailand Tourism Travel travel industry United Nations . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.