Working together to promote South-East Asia could help the region attract more first-time tourists than countries going it alone, an academic from The University of Queensland says.
UQ School of Tourism senior lecturer and researcher Dr Noel Scott said backpackers from Europe and South America were likely to want to go to several countries in the region, rather than just one.
“Going to Cambodia and Laos as well might be more attractive than just going to Vietnam for such a long trip,” Dr Scott said.
The comments came after tourism ministers from 10 countries decided to scrap the brand name Asean in favour of the more well-know South-East Asia to describe an area stretching from Myanmar to Indonesia in their marketing materials.
But Dr Scott said the ministers had to be aware that only changing a name did not go far enough, with a need for a co-ordinated marketing strategy, a dedicated staff and budget.
“An active co-operation of stakeholders with strategic planning is needed,” he said.
People living in South-East Asia travelled between countries for holidays, making marketing of tourist destinations such as Singapore in nearby countries a valuable exercise, he said.
But there were more advantages in working together when it came to attracting tourists from further afield, he said.
“I have looked at how people travel in South-East Asia and whether they go to one country or several countries. I found a significant proportion go to a number of South-East Asian countries during the same trip.
"That is a prima facie case of the benefit of working co-operatively together.”
It was especially important to attract first-time travellers, such as young backpackers, because they tended to return to a region they liked, Dr Scott said.
“First-time travellers to an area want to get an idea of what it is all about. They often go back to particular places.
“People who have been to see many parts of Europe may decide to go back and just spend 10 days in Tuscany.
“You want the first-timers and convert them to regular customers. That is where you could target people in the long-haul markets.
“There is sufficient evidence to show it would be an advantage to work together on attracting travellers from some long-haul markets – and getting the first-timers in.”
Media: Noel Scott (0402 825 426) or Erik de Wit (0417 088 772)
