Daily Times

Among Asia-Pacific countries, Singaporean travelers are the most likely to book a long-haul trip to cities like Paris and London, while an aging population is contributing to a decline in overseas travel among Japanese travelers.

These are some of the conclusions outlined in a new Visa Travel Insights report, which aims to tease out travel trends out of the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, rising affluence among “a new generation of Asia Pacific consumers” means that the global travel industry can expect to welcome an estimated 90 million new travelers by 2025, analysts predict.

Currently, Asia-Pacific households account for one in three global traveling households, up from out of four in 2006.

The report also found that travel patterns are changing along with rising income levels in the region.

Traveling further afield

“As household income growth continue to outpace economic growth in most countries in the region, overseas travel is not only becoming more common, people are also travelling more often and looking at further destinations such as Europe and the US,” said Glenn Maguire, Principal Asia Pacific Economist, Visa in a statement.

This is especially true in Singapore, which has the highest propensity for long-haul flights in the region and an average household disposable income of nearly $137,000. Their preferred travel destination? Europe.

Singapore is followed by Hong Kong ($102,000) and Australia ($85,000).

Meanwhile, long-haul travel is seen to be virtually non-existent among lower-income segments, particularly in countries like Japan ($56,000), India ($28,300) and Indonesia ($35,000).

Published in Daily Times, June 27^th 2018.