Asia Pacific travel metasearch site Wego.com. has revealed – not altogether unsurprisingly – that South East Asian travellers are dumping group travel and prefer to go it alone.
A Wego-commissioned poll has found that traditional group travel is in decline and Singaporean, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino travellers now have a preference for travelling on a more individual basis.
Craig Hewett, Wego co-founder and chief commercial officer, said only one in five prefer a package holiday – with an equivalent number entirely spontaneous in their decision-making: "I look out for special offers and will take one of those and go."
Only 14% indicated a preference to travel as part of an organised group.’
Respondents were a representative mix in terms of age and status, Wego noted.
A quarter gave Bahasa Indonesia as their preferred language, "reflecting the relative size of that market. They know what they want and for the vast majority it is not a group tour," said Hewett.
Almost half of South East Asian travellers use online travel sites, women accounting for 57%. More then 60% of respondents said they also look to advice from family and friends.
Only a quarter use a travel agency.
Hewitt urged the Australian inbound tourism industry to prioritise Indonesia "which had recorded 100% year on year growth in the volume of (Wego.com) searches for Australian destinations".
He said a "disproportionately high number" of these searches were by users profiled as ‘early adopters’ and ‘free spenders’ – the new growth segment.
by Ian Jarrett
