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Asians increasingly prefer to holid



Subject: Asians increasingly prefer to holiday close to home (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 23:10:18 PDT
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.southeast, clari.biz.industry.travel+leisure,
    clari.biz.features
Subject: Asians increasingly prefer to holiday close to home


	 JAKARTA, Aug 30 (Reuter) - Affluent Asian consumers are more
and more looking to vacation spots in their own backyard when
they venture abroad for rest and recreation, tourism authorities
say.
	 The lure of Europe and the United States, while still strong
for some countries, is fading.
	 Increasingly, Asians are holidaying in the Orient, or mixing
business and pleasure as they travel in neighbouring countries.
	 Whether it's trekking in Nepal, diving in the Indonesian
archipelago or seeking unique health therapies in Indonchina,
the lure of the East is proving stronger.
	 ``People in this region are wealthier now and they prefer to
travel without wasting too much time,'' Indonesia's
director-general of tourism, Andi Mappissammeng, told Reuters in
a recent interview.
	 ``If you travel to Europe from Singapore it will take you
more than 10 hours, but it's only 1-1/2 hours to Bali,''
Mappissamneng said.
	 ``In the last 10 years there has been an evolutionary
switching of the source of our tourists from Europe to the
Asia-Pacific region, with the biggest market being the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries,'' he
said.
	 Last year, Indonesia received 4.3 million international
visitors, with around 62 percent from seven Asian countries.
Neighbouring Singapore, with a population of about three
million, accounted for just over one million of these visits.
	 Around 30 percent of all visitors are businesspeople taking
advantage of their visit to add a few days' holiday onto a
working trip or conference.
	 In Singapore, about 70 percent of its 7.14 million visitors
in 1995 were from other countries in Asia.
	 The pattern is repeated in Thailand, where its seven million
foreign visitors in 1995 have made tourism the country's top
revenue earner.
	 ``The largest number of tourists visiting Thailand are from
East Asia comprising ASEAN members, China, Hong Kong, Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan,'' said Charun Chuennaitham, chief of the
state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand's statistic section.
	 Tourist numbers from North America and Europe are still
substantial, particularly where there are former colonial ties.
	 While 43 percent of tourists visiting the Philippines are
from East Asia, the largest single group is from the United
States, which accounts for 19 percent of all visitors. In India,
British tourists are the largest single group, accounting for 15
percent of holidaymakers.
	 But not everybody prefers to holiday close to home.
	 With a strong yen, Japanese have increasingly travelled
abroad in recent years, and figures from the Japan National
Tourist Organisation show a majority of the 15.3 million
Japanese who travelled overseas in 1995 preferred to go to the
United States.
	 Korea, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and
Thailand, in that order, are the next most popular destinations.
	 However, data from Visa International shows the top four
destinations for Japanese credit card use are the U.S., Hong
Kong, Italy and France.
	 While shopping is the priority of tourists in Singapore and
Hong Kong, other countries are trying to develop different
approaches to lengthen average stays and daily expenditure.
	 Malaysia is developing itself as an eco-tourist destination.
The World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature office there says these
types of destinations are proving more popular with tourists,
particularly specialist visitors like birdwatchers, from the
U.S. and Europe.
	 ``They are willing to pay to come and see these things which
are of special interest to them,'' WWF conservation director in
Malaysia, Geoffery Davidson, said.
	 Indonesia, promoting itself as a centre for
marine-orientated tourism, has increased the number of
international gateways from just the capital Jakarta and the
holiday isle of Bali 10 years ago to 21 international airports.
	 In addition, Indonesias has sought an edge on its neighbours
by unilaterally granting visa-free access to 46 countries as it
aims to boost tourist numbers to more than 11 million by 2005.
	 Japanese travel agencies say they have to now come up with
more unique tours to lure well-travelled customers.
	 The Japan Travel Bureau, one of the country's largest travel
agencies, now organises tours of Asian countries offering rare
health therapies such as special massages and herbal medicines.
	 Kinki Nippon Tourist, a rival agency, has its eye on
countries off the beaten track such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos.