TravelRave ends on a high note to the tune of Asia

As the only comprehensive regional platform of its kind, TravelRave 2011 was truly a celebration of the best in Asia’s travel and tourism industry.

The mega travel and tourism festival comprised 10 world-class events that featured a number of prominent speakers and attracted more than 9,500 attendees, a 15 per cent growth over 2010.

Starting with the Singapore Experience Awards, and culminating with the Cornell Hotel Society Asia Pacific Regional Conference – one of four new events this year, TravelRave 2011 showcased new and original Asian-focused research and content alongside the leading minds in the travel and tourism industry. Many of the conversations centred around the resilience and growth potential of the region.

"It has been a fruitful week of meaningful discussions and meetings. Many who attended TravelRave this year have made valuable contacts and gained useful insights from the various sessions," said Ms Aw Kah Peng, chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Speaking at ITB Asia, UNWTO Secretary-General Mr Taleb Rifai said Asia is in the box seat to capture the lion’s share of 1.8 billion international tourists expected by 2030. "This is definitely the place to be for businesses and destinations," he declared.

At the opening of the Web in Travel (WIT) Conference themed “Find Your Groove”, Founder and Editor, Ms Yeoh Siew Hoon said that Asia has found its groove as a region to be reckoned with in travel and tourism. It is “a major source of customers, a continent of beautiful destinations, a region of talent and a source of innovation, not just imitation, and home to wonderful, different cultures and peoples”.

At the same time, travellers from Asia  – and in particular those from Singapore - are heading in the opposite direction to take advantage of the foreign currency rates that are currently in our favour, added Mr Clement Wong, Director of Research, PhoCusWright.

Calling it “the golden age of online travel” for Asia Pacific, h e shared a PhoCusWright study that showed that APAC has already overtaken the US as the second largest travel market, after Europe.

According to the study, the APAC travel market is projected to climb to US$290 million in 2012, overtaking the US as the second largest travel market in the world. This translates into a 29 per cent share of the tourism pie. In comparison, online market share in APAC is expected to amount to 21 per cent compared with 41 per cent in Europe and 34 per cent in the US.

"Nevertheless, rising Internet access and purchasing would see the online travel market enjoying double-digit growth in 2012.The online market will grow twice as fast as the offline market," said Mr Wong. As testimony to Asia’s vibrant business environment, Mr Raimund Hosch, CEO of ITB Asia’s organisers Messe Berlin revealed that space at this year’s show was sold out four months in advance. And next year’s event is expected to reach “another level", he added.

Exhibitor space is projected to increase by 20 per cent to accommodate more than the 750 exhibitors from 70 countries represented at ITB Asia 2011.

From networking opportunities to discussions that generated an exchange of ideas and innovative solutions, to the celebration of notable Singapore experiences, TravelRave 2011 proved to be a remarkable week for delegates, speakers and organisers alike.

Mr. Taleb Rifai sums up, “UNWTO is very happy to have been part of TravelRave with the organization of a High Level Meeting dedicated to debate tourism opportunities and challenges in Asia. TravelRave is an innovative initiative and a perfect platform to leverage the dynamism of Asian’s tourism. According to UNWTO’s longterm forecast Tourism Towards 2030, Asia will be the fastest growing region for international tourism within the coming two decades. TravelRave enables the sector to harness this vast growth potential."

Mr. Kerry Gumas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Questex Media Group, echoes the positive sentiment. “From our perspective as the organiser of the Asia Pacific Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference, this is an absolutely magnificent concept. From start to finish, we have been impressed with the collaboration among all the TravelRave partners. The entire strategy behind the organisation of TravelRave has been truly remarkable in trying to bring together so many different events that represent different constituencies within our industry.”

As a participant of TravelRave and a delegate of the Asia Travel Leaders Summit, he also added, “Without question, for anybody who has not been to TravelRave, the key business benefit of coming here is that you have all of the different participants in the industry here at one place, at one time. Although they are different events, they take place at one very convenient, fun, informative location where you can get all of your networking and business meetings done while having a good time. We think it has been a total success, and we are very much looking forward to coming back again in 2012.”