COMPETITIVE airfares and concerns over safety issues in the wake of Europe’s recent terrorism incidents are driving more longhaul travellers to choose Asia as a preferred holiday destination, according to trade feedback at PATA Travel Mart.

Asia appears to be an unexpected winner resulting from Europe’s recent terror woes, Pacto COO Umberto Cadamuro observed, as the Indonesian DMC saw an 80 per cent year-to-date surge in volume from Europe.

“Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Turkey are a no-go. The shorthaul operators in Europe are left with just Spain and Greece, so they have to start selling longhaul to survive,” he said. “There is always opportunity if you know where to look.”

For president of US-based Travelvision Jaishree Mehta, who deems Europe and Asia as equals in terms of travel costs for American travellers, what makes Asia more attractive now is the perception of Asia as “a safer destination” relative to Europe.

Furthermore, airlines’ aggressive promotions as well as the rise of longhaul budget carriers such as Eurowings have greatly boosted the affordability of a vacation in South-east Asia.

“Eurowings’ flights to Asia are very popular because Germans love a good deal and are willing to make a last-minute booking,” Urs Sandner, managing director, Zarva Travel Management remarked.

In a recent last-minute promotional deal from Germanwings during the low-season month of July, Urs told TTG Asia that he sold out the LCC’s Cologne-Phuket flights in just two weeks.

“With LCCs, travellers can choose between very affordable basic fares and more premium categories (unlike legacy carriers),” he elaborated.

This gels with Cadamuro’s observation of an emerging travel class from Europe. “There is a new wave of travellers who could not afford to travel longhaul before, but now they can travel,” he added.

Also seeing the relative affordability of Asia is Gene Harley, managing director of Chicago-based Advantage International. He said: “The taxes for a Europe round trip costs around US$700 to US$800 whereas the taxes for a similar trip to Asia is around US$100 to US$200.

“A 10-day holiday to Tokyo offers savings of (up to) US$1,000, compared with a trip to Rome,” he elaborated.

Shirish Trivedi, president of Travel Leaders based in Baltimore, said airfares from Washington to London and Rome were almost similar compared with airfares to Bangkok and Singapore – but what gives Asia an advantage is the lower cost of hotels.

He added: “A four-star hotel in Bangkok is 30 per cent cheaper compared with a hotel in London. When you spend 10 days or more on a holiday, the savings is significant.”

Trivedi has seen a 10 per cent increase in interest to Asia, with Cambodia and Myanmar topping the list of favourite Asian destinations.

Overall, trade members credit the Gulf airlines as a game-changer in the longhaul travel landscape by connecting their Middle Eastern home-bases with many cities in European countries.

Outbound travellers from Nice, for example, can now fly directly to the Middle East instead of transiting in Paris in order to connect to Asia, said Cadamuro. “Besides cutting flight time, it is also cheaper than the European and major Asian airlines.”

This has introduced pressure on legacy airlines to cut down on prices, making it more affordable to fly from Europe to Asia.

And amid the growing German interest in Asia, Sandner wants more budget connections to Asia. He said: “It is a good time for AirAsia X to launch direct flights from Malaysia to Germany to fill the gap that Malaysia Airlines had left behind.”

Additional reporting from Dannon Har, S Puvaneswary and Paige Lee Pei Qi

JUST as the Middle Eastern carriers are bridging links between Europe and South and South-east Asia, new longhaul services offered by Chinese carriers too are building China up as a major transit hub into Asia.

Beijing and Shanghai especially represent new – and arguably preferred – alternatives to the traditional transit stops like Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong in linking the US and Europe to Asia.

Air China became the first airline to launch a thrice-weekly Shanghai-San Jose service on September 1, bringing the number of China-US routes it operates up to six, the most of any airline worldwide.

Air China, along with other Chinese carriers like China Eastern Airlines as well as Hainan Airlines and its subsidiaries, appear to have succeeded in gaining hub status for China’s airports, including emerging ones in Chengdu and Chongqing, said buyers at PATA Travel Mart.

“(Chinese airports are becoming transit hubs) in recent years with the opening of more routes especially by Air China. They have been expanding their network very rapidly and this is good for us,” said Liu Shan, sales manager, Asia & Africa Region, CITS.

Bai Jing, director, reservation center division, e-commerce department at CITS said the added connections and competition from Chinese airlines will only be positive for Chinese outbound travellers.

“With competition there will be improvement. It is also not just about the price competitiveness as travellers look at a multitude of criteria when deciding which airline to take. Repeat travellers too are less price conscious,” she said.

Louisa Tsou, president of Ananan Tourist, said Taiwanese carriers have predicted and prepared for the rise of China as a competing hub. “Since 2008, China Airlines and Eva Air have been introducing many new links between Taiwan and China in anticipation of the competition,” she said.

Hence, while flights from South-east Asia to Taiwan have indeed declined due to its compromised trans-Pacific hub status, business has more than made up for itself through connections to China.

Most transit traffic go through Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing into Europe, added Tsou.

Tsou, who is also chairman of the Travel Quality Assurance Association in Taiwan, has seen a 1.8 per cent growth in transit traffic from Taiwan to China in July 2016 compared with the same period last year, and believes growth will only continue.

Unlike Liu’s observation that transit passengers from South-east Asia through the Beijing and Shanghai hubs are on the rise, Chris Ellis, Asia product manager at UK-based Explore Worldwide, believes the increase in connections into China is unlikely to benefit those hoping to visit South and South-east Asia due to the cumbersome routing. Rather, it benefits his European clientele visiting China.