Asia-Pacific travellers big spenders

BANGKOK Visa research shows Asia- Pacific travellers plan on spending more on their holidays than their global peers.
They are leading the world in intended future travel spend, reporting the sharpest rise in anticipated travel budgets for their next international leisure holiday (71%), followed by the Americas (66%) and Europe (56%), according to Visa’s Global Travel Intentions Study 2015.
Within the Asia-Pacific region, respondents from Malaysia (118%) report the highest increase in intended spending for their next trip, followed by Hong Kong and South Korea (both 94%).
The Visa Global Travel Intentions Study 2015 was commissioned by Visa and conducted by Millward Brown, with 13,603 travellers (Have either travelled in the past 24 months or intend to travel in the next 24 months for business/leisure, non-domestic travel only), aged 18 years and above across 25 countries and markets in January and February 2015.
inside no 7When asked about their travel budget behaviour, half of all respondents (54%) said they start planning for their international trips with a fixed travel budget in mind, but seven in 10 (71%) say they do not mind paying extra during a trip if they come across interesting or unique activities.
“Asia-Pacific travellers are driving the global travel spend and we expect this trend to continue,” Visa Asia Pacific senior director of cross-border and channel marketing Vivian Pan.
Based on their last international leisure trip, global travellers surveyed took an average of USD1,000 with them in cash while on holiday.
Asia-Pacific travellers carried an average of USD1,081, putting them behind travellers from Africa & Middle East who carried USD2,000.
Travellers from the Americas carried USD936, while those from Europe took just USD566. Globally, men (USD1,129) tend to carry more cash than women (USD893) on international leisure trips.
inside no 7.1However, the tendency to carry cash, while travelling abroad for leisure, along with the willingness to spend extra for unplanned shopping or activities, means that travellers are often carrying unnecessary ‘contingency’ cash for unexpected purchases, which can be difficult to track.
Visa research shows travellers have on average, USD130 in leftover cash after their trip, which represents 13% of the cash they took with them.
According to the study, Asia-Pacific travellers bring back the most leftover cash – USD153 – which represents 14% of the cash they took with them.
Purchasing souvenirs for friends and colleagues completes the travel experience for most global leisure travellers. According to the study, in addition to the travel ‘big ticket’ items such as air fare, local transport and accommodation, local apparel (37%), local nibbles (37%) and local handicrafts (34%) are the most common purchases for global travellers.
Travellers from Asia-Pacific tend to load their luggage with local food specialties (46%), while those from the Americas and Africa & the Middle East (45%each) are most likely to bring home local apparel. Travellers from Europe, however, have a penchant for purchasing refrigerator magnet keepsakes (31%) as souvenirs.
While women tended to buy slightly more souvenirs, there was no difference between men and women in the top three souvenirs they bought, namely local food specialties, local apparel and local arts and crafts.
While many travellers budget for their intended international leisure holidays in advance, unexpected or unplanned travel expenses, such as souvenir shopping, is often left out of the budget equation.

sourced:ttrweekly.com