Online Travel Industry To Boom In Asia Pacific

[george]

Online travel industry to boom in Asia Pacific: experts

SINGAPORE, : Online travel bookings are set to soar in the Asia Pacific as tech-savvy travellers gain confidence in the security of the Internet and high-speed web access becomes more widespread, industry experts said.

The rise of no-frills airlines, changes in travel patterns in favour of shorter holidays and older travellers getting hooked on the benefits of the Internet should help drive more people to book their holidays by clicking a computer mouse.

"The trend is people are showing more confidence in online booking. Online booking systems are using local languages not just English," Ken Scott, managing director for communications at the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), told AFP.

"Word of mouth is spreading so that when people book and fulfill their travel plans, they tell their friends there was no hitch. So consumer confidence in online booking is growing."

Scott said the growth of cut-price flights should support the rise in Internet reservations as "booking and fulfillment on budget airlines is user-friendly and transparent."

"There is a big market in Asia as people have more disposable income and they see travel as an extension of their lifestyle and as a right," he said.

One company that has positioned itself for the projected boom is pan-Asian travel portal Zuji, a joint venture between 16 of the region's major airlines and Travelocity, a popular US-based travel site.

As Asia's only region-wide Internet travel portal, Zuji offers a broad range of competitive deals and services that provide access to more than 300 airlines, 33,000 hotels and 50 car rental companies.

Zuji has established easy-to-use but comprehensive websites in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan which have a combined Internet audience of 25 million.

It is now waging an aggressive marketing campaign for travellers to use these sites to book holidays from the comfort of their homes and offices.

Its next target is South Korea, with plans to further expand to other key Asian tourism markets such as India, China, Malaysia and New Zealand and hopes to reach an estimated 150 million Internet users across the region.

"It is absolutely inevitable that more and more people will go online. What no one can predict, including myself, is how fast the adoption is going to be," Zuji chief executive Scott Blume said in an interview.

"There is an unstoppable movement to online travel."

Online travel strategist PhoCusWright forecasts the size of the Internet travel market in Asia Pacific to grow to 8.0 billion US dollars next year, up from 4.7 billion dollars this year and 2.7 billion dollars in 2002.

Zuji estimates that by 2004, almost 10 percent of travel bookings in the region will be made online, up from 3.5 percent in 2002.

PhoCusWright said global online travel sales should be worth 80 billion US dollars this year, up from 26 billion dollars three years ago.

Blume said increased Internet usage, the rise of high-speed broadband access and educating certain age groups to use technology will be the key drivers for the industry. Travellers are also more at ease in giving out credit card details online.

The biggest online travel market are those aged in their 20s to their mid-40s and pensioners over 60, according to Blume.

He said online booking still has to take root in people aged in their mid-40s to early 60s.

"As the demographics change and people get more and more comfortable with the Internet, volumes are going to escalate dramatically," Blume said.

Shorter but more frequent breaks lasting three to four days are also becoming popular in Asia, instead of the traditional long vacation -- a trend ideal for busy people who are more likely to book online, Blume said.

To survive the online onslaught, traditional travel agents must find their own niches such as offering golf and scuba diving packages and catering to the "gray" generation, PATA's Scott said.

Blume agreed, saying that travel agents must "specialise, get good at more complicated travel itineraries because the simple stuff will go online."

"Ignore online at your peril."

But Don Birch, chief executive of Asia's largest ticketing and air reservation company Abacus, said online travel portals cannot stand alone and must partner other industry players such as hotels.

"This is the real world and for them to have content... to sell to their customers, they have to be working with people who are established in the industry and understand the processes and the systems and the payments and the controls."

- AFP 2003-11-16