Lunar New Year increases travel intent by 240% week-on-week
Malaysian and Vietnamese travellers are venturing beyond their usual domestic destinations this Lunar New Year, according to Sojern’s Global Travel Insights report. The report also indicates heightened travel intent around the Lunar New Year period, with 240-per cent week-on-week increase in the region, and a shrinking lead time for travel purchases by consumers in Asia Pacific.
“The travel industry is making massive investments to improve processes and experiences for travellers from around the world, but lack real-time knowledge about travel interest and intent amongst consumers in the region,” said Stewart Hunter, Director for Asia-Pacific at Sojern.
“Sojern’s quarterly Global Travel Insights report aims to fill that gap and is a fantastic resource for travel brands and marketers to better understand their audience and their travel patterns. The latest report presents an opportunity to make more strategic, informed investment decisions in the first quarter of 2016.”
Travel during the Lunar New Year period, starting February 8, 2016, is seeing a week-on-week travel increase of up to 240 per cent. While this is less than in 2015 (313 per cent), it does not signify a dip in volume.
Furthermore, more Vietnamese and Malaysian travellers are headed to non-domestic destinations than in 2015, including to Singapore, Melbourne, Tokyo and Sydney.
The report also highlighted that as of early January, Japan and its capital Tokyo occupied the leading positions as Lunar New Year destinations for travellers from the countries that observe the holiday. At country level, Thailand and China take up the next two spots and at city level, Bangkok and Osaka rank second and third.
The list of top eight countries that attracted the most interest in Q4 2015 overlapped with the top eight of the most booked: United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Portugal. Rounding out the top 10 in addition to India is Turkey, while Switzerland and the Netherlands claimed enough bookings to gain two spots in the top ten of the most booked.
The report also throws light on the habits of travellers in Asia Pacific and reveals that search lead times for travellers in the region are shrinking, quarter-on-quarter: 17 per cent of travelers searched for trips seven or fewer days in advance of travel (up from 15 per cent last quarter) and, at the other end of the spectrum, 39 per cent of travellers had a search lead time for 60+ days (down from 41 per cent last quarter).
Travel intent to Paris from East Asia hit a low of 35 per cent week-on-week in the days immediately following the 13 November attacks, not nearly as dramatic of a decrease as intent from Western Europe (as low as 50 per cent week-on-week). However, the decline in Paris interest from East Asia continued for a longer stretch of time, well into December, when other origin regions were beginning to show recovery signs.
Neither Thailand nor Greece made it into the top 10 last quarter – a shift from previous quarters. October was by far the heaviest month for both search and bookings, capturing 37 per cent and 38 per cent respectively of the quarter’s searches and bookings.
Looking at early search and booking patterns for long-haul travel from Europe and the US, Sojern found that destinations in Asia Pacific are somewhat eclipsed by the rise of Brazil, thanks to interest generated by the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Japan is the only country in Asia-Pacific to climb in popularity with Americans (up nine places to position 14 since last year) and Sydney the only city (up 13 spots to position 13 compared to last year).
Thailand remains one of the top two destination countries for long-haul travel by Europeans, but India and Indonesia both slide down by one position overall in 2016, and Vietnam altogether exits the top ten list of long-haul destinations for both Q1 and the rest of the year.
Phuket and Tokyo are the only cities in Asia-Pacific to climb and, respectively, enter the top 10 for Europeans this year.
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