The Global Travel Intention Study 2015 by Visa showed that Asia Pacific travelers favor destinations close to their home and prefer weekend getaways and shorter stays. They have also been seen to be shunning long-haul international flights.
The study analyzing the outbound travel also revealed that their global peers were also following the same pattern as the number of travelers who chose long-haul flights (more than 9 hours) was smaller compared to those that favored short-haul (less than 4 hours) flights.
While 23% of the respondents said that they took long international flights for their getaways in 2014 (down from 29% in 2013), 46% of the respondents (up from 43% last year), said that they opted for shorter flights on the trips they went in the recent past. The time spent by global travelers on flights for recent trips, on average, was seven hours. Additionally, 64% of the respondents said that they preferred to use a standard airline and fly economy class. The study also showed that budget airline was popular only with 20 percent of the participants from Asia.
In addition, the report revealed that respondents from the Asia Pacific region, some of the most frequent global travelers, spent the minimum number of days at one destination. On the other hand, travelers from the Middle East and Africa spent, on average, 13 days at one destination. Only 35% of the travelers from the Asia Pacific region stayed at one place for 7 nights or more, which is below the world average of 48%.
Travelers from the Asia Pacific region led globally for shorter holidays and trips with 32% spending 3 to 4 nights and 11% spending 1 to 2 nights. This demonstrated the travelers’ preference for short-haul flights to nearby destinations. However, longer stays (more than 7 days) were more popular among affluent travelers (54%) and short stays were popular among first-time travelers (11%).
In the Asia Pacific region, the most popular accommodation was hotels and resorts (82%). This was followed by hostels/chalets/guest houses/B&Bs (18%) and boutique hotels as well as friends and relatives (12%).
According to the outbound travel study, the most common reasons as to why people for the Asia Pacific region embark on an international air travel is bonding with loved ones (51%), experiencing cultures (40%) and indulging – good food, spa treatments, shopping and other activities – (37%).
At the destination of their choice, Asian travelers enjoyed shopping (68%), visiting local sites (62%) and visiting famous restaurants (50%). When it came to cultural activities, the majority (62%) of respondents from the Asia Pacific region visited national monuments, architecture, museums and street markets (62%), while 26% visited religious monuments. Further, 26% of the Asia Pacific respondents shopped for luxury items.