And so begins our road trip for the WIT Hospitality Workshop, powered by INFOR EasyRMS; in the next five days, we will be covering Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur and Siem Reap.

See, an itinerary like this would not have been possible up to three or even two years ago but low cost airlines have completely changed the game, opening up new points and new connections.

All we had to do to plan this roadshow was go on a site like Skyscanner and work out the best possible flight connections.

Today, we are on a Jetstar flight to Manila (pictured here with Brand Karma's Mario Jobbe and WIT's Gerry Pang). Tomorrow night, we will fly Cebu Pacific to Ho Chi Minh City.

On Wednesday, we will jet off to Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia, the airline that will also take us to Siem Reap Friday morning. And we will return to Singapore on Jetstar via Phnom Penh.

Cool, right?

This was one of the points I shared at the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) 2013 Symposium held in Adelaide last week when I spoke about the Asian travel story and how it's changed.

Low cost airlines have changed the way millions of South-east Asians travel and in the next few years, the same thing will happen in North Asia, across Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. These carriers have taught us in Asia to fly, buy and travel differently. DIY, Low price, instant purchase, impulse buys, new itineraries …

Low cost airlines now form 24% of all air seats in Asia, according to the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) – soon it will be 50% – and this will cause a major shift in how we in Asia buy travel and where we fly to, and, most importantly, how we perceive destinations – ie where we go on holiday may not be dictated so much by distance, as by price, value and experience.

At the Adelaide conference, I learnt that visitors from Singapore to Sydney are up 19%, largely driven by Scoot, the Singapore Airlines' low cost subsidiary. The growth is coming not from Singaporeans but from new travellers such as Filipino service workers working in Singapore … folks who have not been able to afford a holiday in Australia before.

Low cost airlines have upped the stakes for every destination competing for the Asian dollar. Everyone, including Australia, has to get more creative about putting together competitive packages that get people to say, hey I'll travel there for the weekend or a short break.

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