Asia Pacific travel market has emerged stronger and more ready than ever to helm the growth of the travel industry says Abacus International, the leading provider of travel solutions and services.

Since 2010, Asia Pacific has been the second largest travel market after Europe, and by the end of 2012, the travel market is expected to be worth US$290 billion¹. Asia Pacific airlines collectively carry one quarter of global passenger traffic² – this is expected to increase to one third by 2029³. The Asia Pacific region is now the world's single largest aviation market as well as a growing economic powerhouse. By 2016, the Asia-10 economies⁴ are projected to be larger than that of the United States⁵.

Abacus experienced growth in both booking volume and revenue for 2011, despite a turbulent environment.

Emerging markets have contributed greatly to this increase, led by increases in bookings in India, Myanmar and countries in Central Asia. In 2011, all these markets produced double or triple digit percentage increases in air booking volume year-on-year and is evident in 2012 year-to-date Abacus booking data.

"Although China and India continue to dominate the emerging market scene, countries like Kazakhstan and Myanmar are taking flight as a travel destination while embracing newer technologies to further increase accessibility to their travel content either online or via mobile," said Mr Bailey.

Tourism and travel in and out of these markets have been growing steadily.

Arrivals in Myanmar are rising slowly and steadily, with business travellers making up 21 per cent of all tourist arrivals⁶. Forecasts indicate traveller numbers are set to increase about 300 per cent in 2012 against 2011, with up to one million tourists expected to visit⁷. Outbound traffic will also grow sharply till 2016, with an expected 100 per cent increase from 2011⁸.

Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, has also posted strong growth. From 2011 to 2016, an average of 17 per cent growth in outbound travel is projected⁹. Kazakhstan itself climbed more than 20 per cent in 2011 in outbound tourism, as its large population began to travel extensively to destinations including Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia¹⁰.

Many of those who are visiting these emerging markets are business tourists, and the growth in business arrivals has led to a strong demand for hotels, as evidenced by on-going construction projects by international hotel chains like the JW Marriott, Kempinski and Radisson Blu.¹¹

"Abacus will continue to invest in emerging markets in both South East Asia and Central Asia. With the rapid growth experienced by countries like Myanmar and Kazakhstan, we want to ensure that our customers and partners are well-equipped with the best solutions and services to help them grow and entrench themselves firmly in the Asia Pacific market," said Mr Bailey.

Mobile and HTML 5

"Technology has played a key part in the tremendous growth of the travel industry in Asia, and with continued innovation, I expect travel to overcome any obstacles and hurdles that are thrown its way," said Mr Bailey. "Mobile smartphones and devices are paving the way of the future, and companies will look to strategically leverage these growing areas of technology. Mobile advancements through HTML5 and mobile apps will continue to play a critical role to maximise operations and ultimately, the bottom line for travel companies."

New mobile tools such as apps are driving the future in every aspect of life, including travel.

Mobile users are utilising their devices an average of 94 minutes per day in apps and 72 minutes browsing the Web compared to 43 and 64 minutes per day respectively, just a year and half ago¹².

By 2015, 183 billion cumulative downloads are expected, up from 11 billion in 2010, with social and location features contributing to a shift away from paid download revenues to in-app purchases and advertising¹³. Much of the development and innovation to support demand is expected to be derived from Asia¹⁴.

Rapid advances in HTML5 coupled with the advantages of lower cost and faster development time make it the most-effective platform to reach a wider audience regardless of device. HTML5 can be deployed on a wide range of mobile devices, from iOS and Android to Windows Phone and Blackberry. Sales of mobile devices with full HTML5 support within its web browser are expected to reach one billion next year, compared to 336 million in 2011¹⁵.

"This is an exciting time to be building new travel solutions. The widespread adoption of smartphones and tablet devices along with the headway made by HTML5 has added new dimensions to the way we can connect with our customers and travellers, and enhance the overall user experience," said Mr Brett Henry, VP Marketing, VP India, Abacus International.

Companies like Salesforce, Slideshare and Pandora have already signed up to push for the adoption of the HTML5 standard. Even Facebook recently launched its HTML5 resource centre in an attempt to help designers build, test and deploy Web applications.

"The Abacus strategy is to provide the best user experience for the task at hand; it's not just about rolling out the latest technology fad," said Mr Henry.

Abacus has been on the cutting edge of mobile, leveraging the latest functionalities of HTML5, providing greater mobile accessibility and increasing productivity for greater revenue optimisation. Abacus VirtuallyThere and Abacus WebStart are just two solutions within the Abacus mobility suite that have helped to pioneer the usage of HTML5 technology for easy access across numerous platforms for travel companies and travellers.

"A key priority for most organisations now is the deployment of mobile solutions in order to boost customer engagement. Abacus is leveraging this growing phenomenon to both support third party developers as well as offer an enhanced user experience for our customers, the travel companies. They simply utilise this new technology in a seamless manner through existing productivity solutions," added Mr Henry.

Leveraging Technology and Data

The demand for access to business information and applications through mobile devices has surged into the travel workforce. Half the equipment on corporate networks will be mobile devices by 2015, 34 per cent of employees will use smartphones to communicate with their companies in 2012 and the importance of data plans are fast outweighing voice plans¹⁶.

Mobile technology ultimately allows for companies to have an unprecedented level of connectivity among employees, vendors and/or customers. Workers can utilise mobile technology to enable direct communications with these audiences in a variety of ways.

"Travel companies need to embrace these new communication channels in an integrated way," said Mr Bailey. "Powerful networks, a wide variety of devices, robust mobile platforms and applications and widespread adoption of mobile have all paved the way to bring wireless into the mainstream of doing business today."

"With the potential of turmoil in the economy, travel companies need to be cognizant of the best technologies available and take advantage of the opportunities. Data is king in a mobile community, and companies nowadays need help to leverage these data assets, increase employee productivity and improve overall growth – all key areas of focus in 2012 and beyond."

Notes:

1 PhoCusWright 2011
2 AAPA Dec 2011
3 Airbus Global Market Forecast 2011
4 Asia-10 economies include China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and India
5 Imagining Asia 2020, DBS Group Research
6 Myanmar Tourism Organisation 2011
7 eGlobal Travel Media 2012
8 Euromonitor 2012
9 Euromonitor 2012
10 Kazakhstan Tourism Association
11 Euromonitor Travel and Tourism Report 201
12 Flurry Analytics Dec 2011
13 IDC 2011
14 ABI Research 2011
15 Strategy Analytics Dec 2011
16 GigaOm Pro Survey 2011

About Abacus International
Singapore-based Abacus International is the Asia-Pacific's leading provider of travel solutions and services with more than 20,000 travel agency locations in 29 markets. With over 23 years of experience in fusing international best practices and local expertise with global and local partnerships, Abacus provides travel information and reservations specifically tailored to the Asia-Pacific region. Abacus International is owned by Sabre and a consortium of Asia's leading airlines including All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Dragonair, Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines. Sabre is the global leader in the electronic distribution of travel and travel related services.

More information on Abacus can be found at www.abacus.com.sg