Northstar

TRENDS www.travelweeklyweb.com Indonesia "It's interesting that Bangkok has overtaken Kuala Lumpur this year," commented Graham Hills, Managing Director, Wego Indonesia. "Europe is clearly hitting the travel radar for Indonesians with three cities in the top ten compared to only two in 2012. Most notably Amsterdam has moved into the top five and London into the top ten in 2013." "Even though the Rupiah has fallen more than 20 percent against the US dollar in the last six months, Wego Indonesia saw an increase of 58 percent in international searches during 2013, (38 percent overall in 2013 compared to 24 percent in 2012)," added Hills. "In 2014 more Indonesians will be accessing travel websites from mobile devices than desktops before the year end," predicts Hills. "China will overtake Malaysia and become the number two international destination on Wego for Indonesian users, and I believe that Indonesians travelling to Europe will outpace travel to Asia in terms of growth." "Given the decline in the Rupiah value during 2013 we expect growth to international destinations to slow down in 2014 with more Indonesians holidaying at home. Indonesia will remain a very affordable international destination for regional travellers so we expect to see growth in inbound travel from markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Australia," concluded Hills. Middle East & North Africa "Travel between the Middle East and Asia continues to grow with more flight options between both regions," said Mohamad Ibrahim Masri, Managing Director, Wego Middle East and North Africa. "Intra-regional traffic tops the volume in 2013 due to big expatriate communities working in the Arabian Gulf." "Key tourism destinations such as Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok continue to lead the search results from the MENA region." "In 2014 as the EU works to further relax visa requirements for Gulf Nationals, more travellers will select Europe for their summer holiday destinations. The UK's removal of visa requirements for UAE nationals will change the rankings of top destinations for Emiratis, and help to increase the number of holiday and business trips." "An increased surge in the number of online travel agencies www.travelweeklyweb.com over the past few months may place additional pressure on offline businesses, and in 2014 we will see a further increase in competition for the online travel space," added Masri. "We will see more advanced bookings for summer holidays driven by special offers and promotions that will be rolled out earlier in the market, and we can expect new Asian destinations to be added to the travel menu, with lots of new tourism products from legacy destinations," he concluded. India "Given the falling rupee, 2013 saw many Indians preferring domestic travel destinations and weekend getaways over international options overall," said Jackson Fernandez, Managing Director, Wego India. "However, the flash sales offered by airline companies fuelled a rise in preference for SEA destinations for international travel." "In 2014 we'll see the emergence of the niche traveller, once referred to as backpackers, although in today's parlance could be termed 'well-informed individual travellers'," predicted Jackson Fernandez, Managing Director for Wego India. "This is where social media and Wego's convenient metasearch come into play even stronger, empowering these travellers the freedom to make and live by their own travel plans with little or no assistance from other sources. As a result there'll be a growth in the travel gadgets industry providing many new opportunities." "Value for money will be top of mind for travellers and expectations will be higher than ever before. Given the rupee depreciation Indian travellers chose India for the majority of 2013 which has given rise to newer locales to sprout and scale standards to match other holiday destinations." "The mobile travel market will boom in 2014 and the B2C channel of communication is key to reaching larger audiences through apps, mobile site versions and games. Social networking will continue to become integral marketing channels for travel companies as the most effective method in growing brand awareness and engagement with customers," he continued. "Wego's social platform connects with more than 1.5 million fans globally and continues to grow, and will remain a priority in our communication network." JANUARY 2014 | TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA ■ | 13

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