The enhanced partnership with STB will allow new content for the show by harnessing collective insig

Wednesday, airline flight deals November 06, 2013, 14:00 Hrs [IST] Asia-Pacific travel market to touch USD 352 bn this year ITB Asia continued the momentum this year by witnessing an on-year growth of seven per cent in visitor participation. With focus on MICE Travel and a strong line-up of conferences, ITB Asia 2013 gave an opportunity to industry experts to deliberate on ways to improve business. TravelBiz Monitor presents highlights of the event The Asia-Pacific region is expected airline flight deals to reach USD 351.9 billion this year, according to PhoCusWright. Backed by the emergence of economic powerhouses, especially China, India and South East Asia, the region has confirmed itself as one of the driving forces in world travel and has set another all-time high record. The Asia-Pacific airline flight deals travel market ousted Europe to become the world's biggest regional travel market in 2012, earning gross bookings of USD 326.2 billion, and this is expected to grow another eight per cent this year. These figures were released at the sixth edition of ITB Asia, 'The Trade Show for the Asian Travel Market', which was held from October 23 to 25, 2013, at the Suntec airline flight deals Singapore Exhibition Convention Centre.
"We expect the Asia-Pacific travel market to maintain its growth through 2015 to reach USD 407.3 billion and China will account for a third of that. The Indonesian market is also poised for rapid development in the next three years and double-digit growth is forecast for several Asia-Pacific markets through 2015," said Chetan Kapoor, Research Analyst airline flight deals – Asia Pacific, PhoCusWright. This year, ITB Asia reported a strong presence of 825 exhibiting companies from 73 countries. The sixth edition of the premier trade show for the Asian market attracted over 9,100 visitors from over 110 countries across three days, a seven per cent increase over last year.
The show sold out completely four months in advance, with many exhibitors increasing their presence. "The show has evolved tremendously from when it made its debut in 2008 and has now gained an even greater international dimension. Now that Asia Pacific has taken the crown as the world's largest travel market, it becomes even more critical for us to maintain our position as an effective platform to network and gain insights about the region's travel market," said Christian Göke, CEO, Messe Berlin, Organiser of ITB Asia.
ITB Asia 2013 witnessed an increase in diversity of exhibiting companies across the different industry sectors. The show saw the largest airline flight deals representation ever from the US, with Brand USA making its debut, taking up an increase of 90 per cent of booth space with 30 per cent more exhibitors airline flight deals compared with 2012. The major American presence at this trade show saw exhibitors, including Florida, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Caesars Entertainment, Grand Canyon, Universal Orlando, Utah's Canyon Country and Tour America.
"The South-East-Asian market is an emerging, but rapidly growing, one, and we are experiencing a consistent demand for travel to the US. ITB Asia represents for us a key channel through which we reach out to this increasingly discerning airline flight deals audience seeking a unique and memorable airline flight deals travel experience. We are confident that our inaugural debut here will make a positive and lasting impression," airline flight deals said Christopher L Thompson, President and CEO, Brand USA.
Brand USA invited wholesalers, tour operators, retail agents and online travel agencies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to the 'Taste of USA' Travel Trade Lunch Seminar to explore business opportunities and share new itineraries. The USA Pavilion and related activities at ITB Asia 2013 were a part of the Brand USA Asia Sales Mission, covering Taiwan, Hong Kong and South East Asia.
Exhibitors from Europe booked 20 per cent more floor space and countries from the Asian region were strongly represented. The Philippines had 75 per cent more floor space than last year and Japan increased its presence by more than 140 per cent at this year's show.
ITB Asia maintains its focus on ensuring a well-balanced mix of geographical markets and segments such as MICE, Leisure, and Corporate Travel to uphold the quality of buyer-seller experience. ITB Asia 2013 saw a stronger focus on the MICE segment. The Business Travel segment more than doubled in 2013 compared with last year, and representation from Conference and Meeting venues also tripled since 2012. Lionel Yeo, Chief Executive, airline flight deals Singapore Tourism Board (STB), airline flight deals said, "STB has worked closely with Messe Berlin to grow ITB Asia as an anchor event of TravelRave, and this strengthens the value proposition of TravelRave as a dynamic marketplace of ideas and business opportunities."
Quite a few tour operators and hotels from India participated at ITB along with a few tourism boards like Goa, Karnataka etc. Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) used the event as a launch platform to unveil its special book to commemorate the 31st year of the association. 'IATO Coffee Table Book' was launched by R V Deshpande, Minister for Higher Education and Tourism, Govt. of Karnataka.
Talking about the book, Subhash Goyal, Chairman, STIC Travel Group, and President, IATO, said, "The launch function was graced by the presence of the Karnataka Tourism Minister, with the first copy given to him. The book explains airline flight deals various airline flight deals roles played by IATO in the development of tourism in the country. airline flight deals It explains IATO's effort in bringing changes to National Tourism policies such as open sky policy, increase of national tourism budget and other several significant tourism guidelines."
Deshpande commended IATO for its initiative. Further, while speaking airline flight deals about Karnataka Tourism's presence at ITB Asia, Deshpande said, "We displayed our tourism products at ITB Asia. We gave special importance for the promotion of Golden Chariot, our Luxury Tourism product. It has been attracting many tourists from the Asian market. Overall the experience was good, although, they could have managed a larger turnout as very few visitors airline flight deals were present on the second and third days of the mart, compared to the first day."
STIC Travel Group's Singapore office for the first time participated at ITB Asia to extensively promote India as a tourist destination in South East Asia. Richa Goyal Sikri, Director - Group Business Development, STIC Travel Group, said, "When I first started visiting tour operators in Singapore and Malaysia a year ago, the general reaction towards India was not positive, to say the least. There is a tremendous lack of confidence towards our country internationally and a significant information gap. We first started by educating travel agents and operators about the destination and distributed a lot of informative material to support them. We then invited a group of agents from Singapore and Malaysia to visit India, and are encouraged by their response. Currently, about 60 per cent of the international sales revenue of STIC comes from Western countries. With focused efforts towards tourism promotion within Asia, we plan to take this ratio to a more balanced 50-50 equation. We would like to have the Asian emerging markets contribute at least 20 per cent more in our overall sales figures."
airline flight deals ITB Asia has signed an MoU with STB to produce an even stronger conference programme airline flight deals over the next three years. This year, the show delivered over 3,850 minutes of high powered content, over 20 sessions.
The enhanced airline flight deals partnership with STB will allow new content for the show by harnessing collective insights from top industry leaders to uncover more business opportunities airline flight deals and provide an even more effective knowledge-sharing platform for travel airline flight deals professionals.
"Working with STB to gather travel professionals and business leaders from the entire spectrum of the industry will help us generate even more strategic networking, business and collaboration opportunities to drive more quality buyers and visitors to the show," said Nino Gruettke, airline flight deals Executive Director, ITB Asia.
Yeo said, "As an organisation, we look for partners that can challenge us, and who are prepared to be challenged by us. Our belief is that this spirit of mutual motivation will raise our game and push boundaries. Messe Berlin is one such partner, hence I'm optimistic about this continued partnership."