Face-to-Face: David Brett, Amadeus
Q) Is female travel increasing in Asia and among Asian women?
It depends on where you are. There is definitely a phenomenon of women getting together in groups, travelling together, experiencing shops and spas. It is definitely already happening and is likely to increase. But currently women are travelling to destinations they are familiar with and that they consider safe, such as Singapore and Bangkok. But the trend will definitely continue as women become more independent and adventurous.
Also more women are graduating from Asian universities now, so the boardrooms of the future will be filled with women, and this will increase the trend further.
New markets could open up, but they need to do more to attract the female market. This isn’t to do with offering particular facilities, but more promoting the destination in the correct way and informing people to make an educated decision.
Q) Are women also driving changes in the way people book travel?
Yes, women tend to be a lot more detailed, they dig a bit deeper and ask more questions. They also use the internet more and use Facebook more than men. This is making the tourism providers think more about how they make their offers, making their products more attractive to a female booker. So in future, the more information the supplier is able to provide to the customer, the more they are able to tailor their products to the individual, the more successful they will be. A lot of this will be driven by social media.
It seems to be a very recent phenomenon that has quickly caught on. A lot of big travel providers are now in the process of re-jigging their products to take into account who is making the final decision. Maybe the data just wasn’t available before, but it’s interesting to see how many industry experts agree with our findings. It really is quite remarkable that everyone picked up on the trend at the same time.
It’s quite a big shift in the way people look at things. It’s no longer enough to just package together a flight and a hotel; providers really now need to go ‘door-to-door’, with transfers, attractions and car hire designed for the individual and packaged in an attractive way. And it’s a really good thing as it means we’re going to get something we actually want, rather than people selling you some generic product.
Q) So is the industry becoming more specialised?
There is a trend towards more individualised products. Whether that will become an advantage for the niche players, or whether the big players will start offering more niche products, is yet to be seen.
A lot of what’s been said about travel agents dying off just hasn’t happened. What is clear is that if agents make use of the technology available to them and provide a good service, people will pay. If they don’t, customers will go elsewhere. If you don’t use the technology available to you and someone else does, clearly you will struggle.
As a GDS, what we’re trying to do is gather as much information as possible from as many sources as possible and present that in a way that’s easy to use and easy to interpret to the customer. We need to be able to provide that door-to-door offering that customers now demand.
Q) What affect will the onset of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 have on travel in the region?
I think it will provide an enormous boost to travel in the region, because there are so many people who it could benefit. So many people now want to go on short hops across the region, the potential is mind-boggling.
Look at India; previously not many Indians came for short breaks in Bangkok because you needed a visa. Then they introduced visa-on-arrival and it became so much easier. I still don’t understand why certain countries are so restrictive. There is good evidence that every time you open up there is a boost to travel. Tourism is such a lucrative business that I don’t understand why they make it so difficult – it’s counter-intuitive and counter-productive. Governments need to be more coordinated in their approach.
Q) And how far are we away from the single ASEAN tourist visa?
It would be a great idea, wouldn’t it? If they could pull it off, it would provide a huge boost to the region, but I couldn’t say how close we are to it.