Haruo Ushiba, Phocuswright Japan Director and Senior Analyst, said at Online Travel Trend Seminar hosted by Dentsu that the ratio of online bookings in Asia Pacific region (APAC) is expected to reach 40% or more of the total, the same level as Europe or U.S., in 2018 to 2020. “Booking on mobile is particularly growing,” he said. “Leapfrog to outnumber mobile bookings in Europe or U.S. may happen in APAC.”
Travel sales (overnight trips only) of the world amounted to about 137 trillion JPY in 2014, out of which those in APAC was about 36.8 trillion JPN or a share of 27%. Even after APAC became the biggest travel market in the world in 2012, the market is expected to grow with annual growth rate of 6.8%, which is much higher than that of 2 to 3% in Europe or U.S.
The ratio of online bookings in APAC, however, was about 28% in 2014, lower than 44% in Europe or U.S. Ushiba said that the ratio in APAC is a few years behind Europe or U.S., but Phocuswright has forecasted that the ratio will catch up with that in Europe or U.S. in 2018 to 2020.
One of the noteworthy trends is that the ratio of booking on mobile in China has already exceeded 50% of the total, much ahead of 10% in the U.S. market. The growth of booking on mobile is boosted by apps, and app users for airline bookings remarkably accounted for 75% of the total in China. Phocuswright has forecasted that the ratio in China may reach 70% in 2017.
Ushiba also pointed put that startup companies for mobile businesses have rapidly increased in Asia particularly, and they have collected investments from different countries including Japan. In comparison of fund-raising by startups by region, the share was 66% in U.S. and 22% in APAC in the period from 2005 to 2009, but it reversed to 27% in U.S. and 55% in APAC in 2014. In accordance with the rapid growth of the travel market, technologies is also developed at high spend in APAC, according to Ushiba.
Phocuswright has also forecasted that the travel market of Japan is expected to grow by around 5% a year by 2017, boosted by increases in foreign travelers and Japanese travelers in Japan. China, India and Indonesia may see the growth rates of 10 to 15% a year for the next four years. The ratios of online bookings may rise from 34% in 2014 to 40% or less in 2016 in Japan, from 22% to 40% or more in China and from 39% to 44% in India.
The ratio of online bookings in Europe is expected to rise to 47% in 2016, exceeding 45% in U.S., mainly because the ratio may rise in Germany, France or Spain, where the ratio was 35% or less in 2014.
In Japanese
