Don’t ignore Eastern Europe, Asia told

SINGAPORE: 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 per cent since 1999, according to Euromonitor International.

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 International’s figures show that Eastern European outbound expenditure has grown by almost 90 per cent between 1999 and 2006 in US dollar terms, albeit from a low base and is predicted to grow by a further 20 per cent between 2006 and 2010.

Asia 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 is speaking on “The Growth of Eastern European Tourism into Asia” at Travel Distribution Summit Asia 2007.

“Already, we are seeing some countries in Asia beginning to respond to the language needs of Eastern European tourists”, said 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, according to Euromonitor International.

“This is something which markets such as Singapore may struggle to offer, due to its limited supply of mid-tier hotels”, explains 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”.

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 International 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 International, 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.