Asia risks Losing Out on New Wave of Eastern European Tourists

Asian Tourist Boards must do more to target the growing number of Eastern European travellers, according to market analyst Euromonitor International. Failure to act now will see Asia Pacific lose out on the increasingly lucrative Eastern European outbound tourism market to competing regions, such as Latin America and the Middle East.

In 2006, the numbers of Eastern Europeans travelling abroad rose to 96 million, with departure numbers increasing by more than 30% since 1999, according to Euromonitor. Such rapid growth means that Eastern Europe is now the third-largest region in the world in terms of outbound travel, overtaking North America for the first time last year.

Not only is the number of Eastern European tourists growing rapidly, so is the amount of money they are spending while overseas, thanks in large part to rising levels of disposable income within the region. Euromonitor’s figures show that Eastern European outbound expenditure has grown by almost 90% between 1999 and 2006 in US dollar terms, albeit from a low base and is predicted to grow by a further 20% between 2006 and 2010. It is without question, therefore, that Eastern Europe offers massive potential as a source market for the tourism industry.

Asian Pacific countries looking to attract tourists from Eastern Europe face two main challenges; namely price sensitive attitudes and language barriers, according to Parita Chitakasem, Asia Pacific Tourism Manager at Euromonitor International, who will be speaking on “The Growth of Eastern European Tourism into Asia” at the Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2007 in Singapore.

“Already, we are seeing some countries in Asia beginning to respond to the language needs of Eastern European tourists,” said Parita Chitakasem. “Thailand, for example, has started to create brochures and signs in Russian. However, this is only a start and much more effort needs to be made to make tourists from across Eastern Europe feel welcome in Asia.”

Asian destinations also need to respond to the price sensitivity of Eastern European travellers, by offering more mid-priced packages and mid-range travel accommodation. “This is something which markets such as Singapore may struggle to offer, due to its limited supply of mid-tier hotels,” explained Chitakasem. “On the other hand, markets such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are in a relatively strong position to attract Eastern Europeans, as they are value-for-money destinations.”

The good news is that awareness of Asia Pacific as a destination to visit is developing in Eastern Europe, boosted by the growing number of Asian restaurants and an increasing interest in Asian food and beverages, including such Asian specialty drinks as green tea, as well as by the sizeable Asian community in Eastern Europe.

As for improving accessibility to Asia from Eastern Europe, there has been much activity already amongst schedule airline companies. Eastern European airlines and Asian airlines have already started forming alliances, providing a wider scope of routes for Eastern Europeans to visit Asia  Pacific destinations and vice-versa. Code share agreements set up in the past two years include Cathay Pacific and Aeroflot, JAL and Malev Hungarian airlines, and Singapore Airlines and LOT Polish airlines.

Asian Tourist Boards now need to draw on this increasing awareness and accessibility, to tap into a growing interest among middle class Eastern Europeans in beach and sun holidays in exotic locations. Indeed, Euromonitor predicts that an exotic holiday location will be on the wish list of every typical Eastern European middle class consumer within the next two years.

Those source markets offering the most potential in the short-term are Russia and Poland, according to Euromonitor, with markets such as Slovenia, Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are amongst the richest Eastern European markets, also offering excellent prospects for Asia Pacific tourism.

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