Sustainability

Rebuilding tourism in Asia-Pacific: A more conscious traveller?

February 24, 2022

Asia

Rebuilding tourism in Asia-Pacific: A more conscious traveller?

February 24, 2022

Asia
Pratima Singh

Senior manager, Policy and insights

Pratima Singh is a senior manager with Economist Impact’s Policy and insights team in Singapore. She works with foundations, corporates, governments and non-profits seeking evidence-based analysis and policy recommendations. At Economist Impact, Pratima leads several of the organisation’s global and Asia-focused sustainability-themed research programmes.

Pratima has worked with a number of organisations across the public and private sector including the National University of Singapore—where her research focused on economic and social policy issues—the Centre for Civil Society, the Asian Development Bank, and Frontier Strategy Group, where she supported senior executives at several large multinational companies build their Asia Pacific business strategies. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from University College London (UCL) and a BSc Economics degree from the Singapore Management University.

Covid-19 has changed travel in many ways. Since the onset of the pandemic—which has had a devastating impact on human life and society—travellers are thinking more about the impacts of their holidays on communities, local economies and the environment. Although these discussions picked up in the past few years, the pandemic has resulted in a travel awakening of sorts and accelerated the push towards more conscious, responsible travel in Asia-Pacific.
An Economist Impact survey of more than 4,500 travellers in the region—across Australia, Japan, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand—shows that more than 7 in 10 (71.8%) respondents agree that covid-19 has changed the way they think about sustainable tourism by making it more important to them.
 
The numbers are even more striking in some countries, with 98.5% of respondents in the Philippines, 96.5% in India and 93.5% in Malaysia saying the pandemic has changed the way they think about sustainable tourism, and well over four in five citing the need for more sustainable tourism practices.
 
Could we be witnessing the dawn of a period of more conscious travel? Our survey results certainly suggest so, with well over half (57.1%) saying they think differently about tourism and how to do it sustainably, especially as it relates to the local economy, communities, cultures and the environment. 
 
This report by Economist Impact, and supported by Airbnb, explores the recovery of tourism in the Asia-Pacific region. It looks at ways in which travel could change with the rise of the conscious traveller. The report is based on extensive desk research and a survey of more than 4,500 travellers from across the region. The report was written by Siddharth Poddar and edited by Pratima Singh.
 
We would like to thank the following contributors for providing additional insights:
  • Soity Banerjee, independent travel writer and project editor, Outlook Responsible Tourism Initiative
  • Gaurav Bhatnagar, director, The Folk Tales
  • Rachel Dodds, director, Sustaining Tourism and professor, Ryerson University
  • Randy Durband, chief executive officer, Global Sustainable Tourism Council
  • Philip Goh, regional vice-president, Asia-Pacific, International Air Transport Association
  • Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, lecturer of tourism management, University of South Australia’s Business School
  • Seul Ki Lee, director, LINC+ Project and associate professor, Sejong University
  • Liz Ortiguera, chief executive officer, Pacific Asia Travel Association

Find out more about our findings in the infographic story from the same series.

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