Youth is the key in tourism: forum
By Yvonne Yong | Posted: 31 January 2007 1831 hrs

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	Video Singapore leading youth travel market Youths not the only market we should focus on

Fun, cost conscious and for the young - the travel industry is looking to make more of these elements available to the next set of travellers from Asia.

With the emergence of low cost carriers that are flying further and increased online activity, Robin Yap, Director of Contiki Indonesia Resorts, expects the youth segment to grow even faster in the next few years, and as much as 20 to 30 per cent, year on year, for the company.

The Asian youth travel market has started to open up in the past five years, observes Yap, who is also Regional Director of Asia Insight Vacations, adding that Singapore is probably the leader of this development.

Speaking at the ASEAN: Shaping the Future of Youth Tourism Forum at Suntec Singapore International on Wednesday, Yap explained why other Asian countries may lag behind when it comes to traveling youths.

"Because of the culture, family background – some markets, families are very well-to-do, some are pretty spoilt and want a lot of things to be taken care of . To ask them to rough it out might be a bit tough," he says.

But Singaporean youths, he believes, are more adventurous and more ready to go out on their own and it is this type of market in Asia that youth travel brands such as Contiki want to target.

"That’s why we decided it’s time for us to come to Asia and start off with a resort in Bali and see how it works", says Yap.

Already well established and known for their fun, affordable and party-filled holidays (mainly throughout Europe and America) for 18-35 year olds, Contiki is looking to expand throughout Asia beginning with its first resort in Bali.

"One of the biggest growths is the Bali resort – with its affordability, and after what has happened in the last few years, tourism needs a boost…and airlines offering very good pricing, I can see that this resort will come up very strongly in the next two years," says Yap.

Another company which is looking to tap the growing Asian youth market is Accor which will be introducing their first Ibis, an economy hotel, in Singapore on Bencoolen Street.

The developer of the budget BASE hostels (in New Zealand and Australia) feels that the opening of Ibis will definitely cater more to traveling youths in the region.

"We have been very innovative looking at youth tourism as a very potential growth market in the future... we think Singapore can be a good place to invest," says Vincent Lelay, General Manager Delegate Singapore and Malaysia, Accor.

However Professor James A. Dator, who is the Director at Hawaii Research Centre for Future Studies, believes youth may not be a long term revenue generator for the tourism industry.

While targeting the youth market seems promising, Professor Dator says the future perhaps lies in the older people, because of the decline in fertility in all industrialised countries and in fact many countries in this part of the world.

"All the demographics indicate a growing number of elderly people, even in ASEAN… though there are still parts of it that have an expanding youth bulge, certainly in south and central Asia… in the rest of the pacific region generally people are getting older, and living longer and living healthy lives," he says.

"How old is a youth? Some people would say 80 or 90, in terms of their vigour, desire to do interesting things and the fact that they have the money to go – it’s a much larger market – assuming the ability to have discretionary income, it might be better after spending some time on youth to focus on the older group."

Professor Dator also believes the possible end of oil supplies affecting cheap flights; environmental factors such as global warming, rising sea levels and the spread of disease (largely due to travellers and tourism); as well as changing technologies and ‘virtual experiences’ which may reduce the need to go on holiday, are all factors which will increasingly affect how the 'youths of today' travel in a few decades time. - cna/yy