Western Europe most popular destination for luxury-loving Asians, says survey

(katatonia82)

A new survey released on the first day of the Asia Luxury Travel Market in Shanghai has suggested that when it comes to luxury travel, Asian consumers want something different.

The event organizers questioned some 386 luxury travel buyers on exactly what their customers wanted from a luxury holiday, and found that when it comes to luxury, uniqueness is key.

The uniqueness of the experience was paramount for almost a quarter of the respondents, with reliability of the product and the privacy of the destination coming in second and third place respectively.

In a close fourth place was the security of the destination and - perhaps surprisingly low - the price point was the fifth most important factor, while sustainability was the sixth most common factor.

For the Asian luxury traveler, Europe is the top luxury travel destination, said the survey, with 21.2 percent of agents saying it was the most popular for their customers compared to 18.8 percent that said somewhere in Asia would be their top destination (see top six below).

While travelers from Australia, Japan, China/Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore made up the majority of luxury-loving travelers in Asia, half of the luxury travel buyers surveyed believed that the geographical spread will shift in the next 12 months to include Malaysia, South Korea, India and Taiwan.

The Asian Luxury Travel Market runs June 14-17 in the Chinese city of Shanghai and is expected to be bigger than ever now that the market is recovering - 59 percent of respondents said that luxury bookings were up on the same period last year.

Asia’s Luxury Hotspots

1. Western Europe/Mediterranean
2. Asia
3. Australasia
4. North America
5. UK/Ireland
6. Middle East/North Africa

http://www.altm.com.cn