In the news: Lightfoot Travel’s insights on luxury travel, AAPA’s traffic figures for Asian airlines, Skyscanner’s data on top searched destinations for Chinese New Year
DESTINATIONS: Where luxury travellers want to go for their holidays
Namibia’s beautiful landscape (Image credit: Lightfoot Travel)
Luxury travellers want to experience the unusual and go off the beaten track on their vacations, according to insights from Lightfoot Travel.
Last year these travellers chose South Africa for family travel, Tokyo in Japan to spend the weekends, the Antarctica for adventure and Sri Lanka for romantic getaways by couples.
“Throughout the year we’ve noticed a theme across all luxury travel segments for the desire of unconventional and off-beat locations, all looking for unique experiences. Even younger families and couples are daring to venture further afield,” said Nico Heath, co-founder of Lightfoot Travel.
The tour operator, with bases on Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, has also curated a list of destinations (see below) where luxury travellers want to vacation in for this year, based on feedback from travellers and its own experts.
- Arctic Circle: Astounding landscapes and wildlife; the best way to explore the Arctic Circle is by cruise.
- Namibia: Relatively unexplored with beautiful landscapes, diverse culture and rich African wildlife
- Colombia: Attractions include vibrant Bogota, lush green coffee plantations in Cocora Valley and the walled town of Cartagena on the unspoiled Caribbean coast
- Rwanda: Stunning scenery, one of the best places in Africa to see mountain gorillas in their natural environment, with less than 800 still in the wild.
- Nepal: Destination for the adventurers and culture buffs with the mountains of Pokhara and Annapura Range to explore and trek and rich colourful culture
AVIATION: Asian airlines flying high, positive growth forecast for 2017
Asian airlines flying high (Image credit: pat138241iStock)
Airlines in Asia are seeing continued strong growth, carrying an aggregate total of 267 million international passengers in the first 11 months of 2016, a 5.9% increase on the corresponding period in the previous year.
The statistics was revealed by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) when releasing preliminary traffic figures for November 2016.
Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general, said the international air passenger demand maintained a strong growth trend throughout last year despite geopolitical uncertainties as it was supported by lower oil prices and availability of affordable airfares.
“The general outlook for the global economy in 2017, including further growth in demand for air travel, remains reasonably positive but airlines will need to be vigilant over costs, given fluctuations in oil prices as well as exchange rate volatility,” he added.
The figures for November showed Asian airlines carried a combined total of 23.3 million international passengers, representing a 4% increase compared to the same month in 2015.
Underpinned by continued strength on long haul travel markets, demand in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) grew by 6.2%. The average international passenger load factor rose by 0.7 percentage points to 77.4% for the month after accounting for a 5.1% expansion in available seat capacity (see chart below).
• ASK = available seat kilometres
MARKET INTELLIGENCE: Top-searched destinations from Singapore for Chinese New Year
Japan is a hot destination for Singapore travellers (Image credit: Electra-K-Vasileiadou/iStock)
The ‘Year of the Fire Rooster’ is drawing near and some people are planning to welcome it away from home.
Global travel search engine Skyscanner has released the 15 top-searched destinations from Singapore for the Lunar New Year period.
The five most popular destinations for travellers from Singapore are Bangkok (Thailand) at the top spot followed by Tokyo (Japan), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Bali (Indonesia) and Penang (Malaysia).
“Japan remains to be a hot destination for Singapore travellers, with Tokyo registering a 62% growth in flight searches compared to last year,” said Skyscanner.
The data also revealed Yangon (Myanmar) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) saw the highest growth in travel interest at 187% and 127% respectively compared to last year (see chart below).
• Featured image credit (tea plantations in Sri Lanka): Lightfoot Travel