Australia and UK Rank India In Top 3 Travel Destinations

According to the joint Visa - PATA Asia Pacific Travel Intentions Survey 2010, respondents from 2 of the 13 key Asia Pacific travel source markets, included in the survey, have picked up India as their next holiday destination. 9 % of the respondents in the UK said they would consider visiting India in the next two years, as did 8 % of the respondents in Australia. In both these countries, India has been ranked as the third most popular country likely to be visited in the next two years.

Australia And Japan: Most Desirable Holiday Destinations

Australia and Japan are the most desirable holiday destinations according to the Visa - Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Asia Pacific Travel Intentions Survey 2010. Forty percent of the 6,714 respondents surveyed said they would consider traveling to Australia(17 percent) or Japan (16 percent)in the next two years.

59 percent respondents from New Zealand picked Australia as their mostly likely holiday destination, followed by UK (29 percent), US (20 percent) and Japan (17 percent).Japan is the top pick for holiday-makers from South Korea (38 percent), Chinese Taipei (34 percent), Thailand (26 percent) and Hong Kong (22 percent).

Other key findings from the survey include:

Travel Style:

• 47 percent arranged trips themselves by booking directly with hotels and airlines.
• Self-organized travel was the top travel style for respondents from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
• Flexible individual tours were the next most preferred way to travel (22 percent).
• Packaged group tours were most likely to be booked by travelers from Mainland China (33 percent), Chinese Taipei (29 percent) and Thailand (28 percent).

Trip Duration:

• Most travelers(32 percent) spend three to five nights on vacation.
• Travelers from the UK (29 percent), US (22 percent), and New Zealand (19 percent) tend to take longer trips of between ten to 14 nights.
• Australian travelers were most likely to take the longest breaks – 23 percent of them said their past holiday trips lasted more than 20 nights.

Accommodation:

• Travelers surveyed were most partial to staying at four-star (27 percent) and three-star (21 percent) hotels.
• Respondents from Singapore (47 percent) were most likely to stay at a four-star hotel, while Indian (33 percent) and Malaysian (32 percent) travelers were most likely to pick a three-star hotel.
• Luxury hotels were most popular with travelers from Hong Kong (25 percent) and Chinese Taipei (20 percent).
• Resorts were favored by Korean holiday-makers (25 percent).

Travel Companions:

• Most travelers (48 per cent) tend to holiday with their spouse or partner.
• Holidaying with family and relatives was popular with respondents from Singapore

(42 percent) and Thailand (40 percent), while 35 percent of respondents from India said

they had traveled with their children.

• Respondents from Chinese Taipei (28 percent) and China (26 percent) travelled alone the most during their international holidays.

Asia Leads Global Tourism Rebound For First Half Of 2010

According to UNWTO World Tourism Barometer’s August Interim Update, the global tourism rebound is led by Asia Pacific and the Middle East, with 14% and 20% growth, respectively. Destinations countries in North East Asia (+16%), South-East Asia (+12%) and South Asia (+14%) have recorded double digit increases. Asian countries such as Sri Lanka (+49%), Japan (36%), Vietnam (35%) and Myanmar (35%) registered strong results, propelling Asia to become the second-most visited region in the world. International tourist arrivals increased by 7% for the first half of 2010. On a month-by-month basis, May(+10)), March(+9%) and June(+8%) were the strongest. The positive growth rates, together with the improving global economy, suggest that year-end results may exceed UNWTO’s forecast of 3% to 4%.

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2010 World Tourism Day – Tourism and Biodiversity

“ Safeguarding biodiversity is an urgent challenge that concerns us all – the international community, governments, companies and travellers – but it is not too late to act. ”

- Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary-General

“This year's emphasis on tourism and biodiversity plays into PATA's passion for exploring and conserving life on this planet. ”

- Greg Duffell, PATA Chief Executive Officer

UK Tourism Dips: Outbound By 8%; Inbound By 2%

The number of Britons taking overseas holidays in the first seven months of 2010 declined by 8 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Tour operators, Thomas Cook and TUI Travel, had 1.6m fewer people taking holidays abroad this year to July 2010 compared to the same period for 2009. 44,000 fewer people took overseas holidays in June and July compared with the same period in 2009.

Overall, trips to the UK for January-July fell by 2 per cent (6.66m). Passenger arrivals from the US fell sharply, down 10 percent in the second quarter year-on-year. Business trips to the UK rose 3 percent over the same period, but trips to see friends or relatives fell 7 percent.

US Traveler Technology Trends

According to PhoCusWright’s Traveler Technology report, the top US traveler technology trends are:

- Less than one fourth do all their travel shopping on websites

- More than two thirds are slightly influenced by traveler-generated ratings when making purchase decisions

-43% of mobile phone users are carrying smartphones, and more than a third of mobile users plan to book travel on their phones in the next year

- Close to half of smartphone users are under 35 years old

- Less than a third of touchscreen smartphone users are carrying iPhones

-Seven in 10 are members of an online social network, and membership is stronger among females than males

-Nearly nine in 10 social network users log on weekly or more often

- While over half of social network users are "fans" of companies, less than two in 10 are "fans" of travel companies

- Nearly a third were at least somewhat influenced by comments from people in their online social network when making travel purchase decisions

Telepresence To Reduce 21 Percent Corporate Travel

Telepresence (type of teleconferencing using high definition video and audio and which creates the illusion that meeting participants are in the same room) could lead to an aggregate reduction of 21 percent in corporate travel according to Bernstein Research.It could replace 70 percent of internal travel and 10 percent of external travel over the next 10 to 15 years.

The US telepresence or virtual meeting market will be worth US$ 30 billion in the next decade or within 15 years and almost half of that will be spent by small companies. As part of this shift, major hotel chains such as Marriott and Starwood have started offering telepresence suites in heavy business markets such as Chicago and Hong Kong.

Forrester Research has found that 17 percent of US business travellers have used either videoconferencing or virtual presence in 2009 to reduce business travel. 30 percent of the estimated 6 million to 8 million conference rooms in the US will be telepresence –enabled over the next five years.