Introduction

Large hotel groups and boutique brands are in a race to establish their presence in the ever-growing and competitive consumer market in Asia. To distinguish themselves, hotel brands must skillfully address emerging travel trends, meeting the increasing demand for self-planned trips, community involvement, and participation in sustainability efforts. Following a period of recovery from the global pandemic and economic decline, the Asian tourism sector is displaying signs of revitalization. In 2023, countries in Asia are witnessing a strong resurgence in tourism, marked by a significant increase in tourist arrivals, along with a resurgence of travel businesses and hotels capitalizing on growth opportunities and initiating new investment projects.

As we conclude 2023, a memorable journey for tourism industry, The Outbox Company (Outbox), in collaboration with Vero, is releasing the ASIA HOTEL BRAND BLUEPRINT 2023 report, providing readers with research data on Asian hotel market, offering a comprehensive view of the landscape for brands as well as the new shifts in traveler behavior within the region. Not only helping companies in the industry gain fresh insights into the hotel market in 2023, this white paper is also a crucial and useful source of information for predicting new opportunities and challenges in 2024.

In this report, to understand more about travelers’ preferences and brand perceptions, an online survey was conducted across seven Asian countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Outbox utilized ASIA BRAND HOTEL SURVEY solution to provide in-depth insights into the level of awareness, familiarity, and perception of customers in the Asian region towards hotel brands.

Together with Outbox, Vero provides essential strategic advisories, specifically designed for hotel brands to thrive in the dynamic competitive landscape in Asia.

Key Content

The whitepaper “Asia Hotel Brand Blueprint 2023” includes 3 main parts:

1/ Asia Hotel Market

The Asian hotel market continues to grow as travel demand returns: Accordingly, the recovery is primarily driven by domestic tourism, while international arrivals to the region are increasing but still significantly below pre-pandemic levels. Hotel chains are expanding across Asia, with investments in hotels in the Asia-Pacific region experiencing a slight decrease due to difficulties from global economic downturn, such as rising interest rates, cost inflation, and increasing macroeconomic instability. Despite these challenges, there are still positive signs for the industry, and investors may continue long-term projects. However, hotel construction pipelines in the Asia-Pacific region remain robust, indicating a positive outlook for the region’s tourism sector.

2/ Asia Hotel Brand Blueprint

• Hotel Brand Awareness: Hilton is the top brand in the upper upscale segment with a brand awareness of 60.1%. This is significantly higher than the next closest competitor, Marriott, which has a brand awareness of 47,7%. IHG’s leadership in the midscale and upper-scale segments is a testament to the high awareness scores of its Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands. Two Asian giants, Lotte and Aston, are making waves in the upscale hotel segment, showcasing the growing strength and influence of Asian hospitality brands in the regional market.
  
  

  Most Popular Hotel Brands in Asia (by Market)

   

• Hotel Brand Familiarity: International hotel brands hold a significant advantage over local or regional brands in terms of brand familiarity across the Asia – Pacific region. This dominance suggests a strong preference among travelers in this market for the reliability and consistency that come with established global names.
• Hotel Brand Image: Brand values are evaluated by both rational (which are closely linked with the products/services itself) and those based on more emotional factors (which is how the brand makes people feel).

3/ Future Proofing Hotel Brands

Travel is undergoing a transformation anchored in three key shifts – self-planning, authenticity, and environmental awareness — are the driving forces behind the latest trends in travel, ushering in a new era of exploration and compelling hotel brands to offer services beyond the ordinary.

All details are contained in the full report “Asia Hotel Brand Blueprint 2023” released by The Outbox Company.

Ho Chi Minh City, August 17, 2023 – The Outbox Company, a tourism market research company, has released a new report “Vietnam’s state of travel H1 – 2023”. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the country’s tourism recovery, comparing it to other destinations in Southeast Asia. The report also examines the factors affecting tourism demand among Vietnamese tourists.

Introduction

The Outbox Company’s report “Vietnam’s state of travel H1 – 2023” records and analyzes the performance of Vietnam’s tourism industry from both the supply and demand sides. It also assesses how Vietnam’s tourism recovery compares to that of its neighboring destinations in the region.

The report is a valuable resource for businesses in the tourism industry, investors, and destination management agencies. Businesses can use the report to better understand the tourism situation in Vietnam and make informed business decisions. Investors can use the report to assess the potential of the Vietnamese tourism market and make sound investment decisions. Destination management agencies can use the report to understand the tourism situation in Vietnam and develop appropriate support policies for the tourism industry.

Key content

“Vietnam’s state of travel H1 – 2023” report discuss 3 key content, in which:

The Recovery of Tourism Market

The report indicates a robust recovery in Vietnam’s tourism sector in the first half of 2023, with the country welcoming 5.67 million international visitors. This figure is equivalent to 65.7% of the visitor count in 2019. Despite inflation and a rising cost of living, tourism demand remains high. The pace of recovery in Vietnam’s tourism sector has exceeded expectations, painting a promising picture for the goal of attracting 8 million international visitors in 2023.

However, there are still some challenges facing Vietnam’s tourism sector, including high travel expenses, limited air connectivity, and a yet-to-fully-recover Chinese market.

Outcome of travel supply chain operations

The aviation and accommodation industries in Vietnam experienced a strong recovery in the first six months of 2023, thanks to high travel demand and the lifting of travel restrictions. The airline industry posted a revenue recovery of 88% in March 2023, compared to pre-pandemic levels. Asia Pacific is the fastest-recovering region, accounting for 31.9% of global RPK (revenue per passenger kilometer). The accommodation service industry also saw a strong recovery, with 4.3 million visitors served in the first 6 months of 2023. This is an increase of 110.3% compared to the same period last year. International visitors increased by 7.7 times, while domestic visitors increased by 66.7%. The number of rooms in the 4-5 star segment also increased by 6.2% compared to the end of 2022.

Travel behavior of Vietnamese tourists

During the second quarter of 2023, there was a decrease in the frequency of trips made by Vietnamese tourists, despite the sustained high demand for tourism and an increasing preference for self-planned travel compared to the first quarter. There’s a growing trend among Vietnamese tourists to embark on “spontaneous trips” that are planned within a shorter time frame and have a reduced trip duration.

All details are contained in the full report “Vietnam’s state of travel H1 – 2023” released by The Outbox Company.

Recently, The Outbox Company released the Vietnamese Travel Behavior report to learn about travel preferences and behaviors during Tet 2022. Data from the report shows that even though the pandemic has impacted on finance of Vietnamese households, Vietnamese travelers are willing to spend more when they can travel again, due to the pent-up travel demand during the pandemic.

According to the report, about 55% of surveyed travelers said that they spent for the trip significantly more than they did before the pandemic in 2019. 19% had the same budget as the 2019 budget and about 26% has a significantly less budget than in 2019.

For low-income households, the average spending was about 13.5 million VND. In this segment, the households spent less than they did in 2019 mainly because they were concerned about their finance (about 37%). The proportions of the remaining reasons for spending less were quite equivalent, such as taking a shorter trip (about 22%), saving for future international trips (20.5%), and adjusting trips due to health concerns (20.5%).

Meanwhile, low-income households spent more than they did in 2019 mostly because they invested in experiences (56.3%). 12.7% had a bigger budget than before the pandemic because they accumulated more and 30% spent more on the family’s need for space/comfort.

Middle-income households also have similar spending motivations as low-income households. They spent more than they did in 2019 because 48% want to spend more on experiences, 37% want their family to be more comfortable, and 10.7% accumulated more. A small percentage (4.1%) spent more leveraging WFH policies.

The main reason why middle-income households spent less than before the pandemic is still because of concerns about finance (38%), or taking a shorter trip (26,7%). The average spending for a Tet vacation of middle-income households was about 17.5 million VND, not much different from low-income households.

However, the average spending of high-income households was significantly different, with about 32.3 million VND, nearly double that of middle-income households. The reason why high-income households spent more than before the pandemic was still mainly for experiences (46.7%) or family need for space/comfort (34.3%).

Source: The Vietnamese Travel Behavior Tet 2022 report, The Outbox Company

Different from the two lower-income segments, high-income households spent less than they did in 2019 mainly because they took a shorter trip (31.7%). Only about 23.3% spent less because of concerns about finance, 23.3% saved for future international trips.

It can be seen that Vietnamese travelers’ perception of traveling again during Tet mainly focused on experiencing and relaxing after the stressful pandemic period, which is also the main motivation for them to spend more than before the pandemic.

This also contributes to influencing travelers’ choice of accommodation and experience. The Outbox Company’s report shows that the majority of travelers prioritized mid-range accommodation or above for their trip, with 30% of travelers staying at 3-star hotels. 22% of travelers chose to stay at 4-5-star hotels, and 16% stayed at resorts.

Source: The Vietnamese Travel Behavior Tet 2022 report, The Outbox Company

The tendency to spend more on experiences is also explained by travelers’ preference for cultural activities, as nearly 35% of travelers chose to explore local food, and markets; about 32% visited tourist attractions and 25% participated in entertainment.

With 9.6 million domestic trips recorded, the Tet 2022 is a vibrant time for Vietnam’s tourism industry after nearly two years halted because of the pandemic. The behavior of spending more when traveling again, as well as valuing the in-destination experiences during the Tet holiday is a positive sign for Vietnam’s tourism industry and creates opportunities for tourism businesses to anticipate and meet the travelers’ new demands.

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Under the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the attitudes and behaviors of consumers in general and tourists, in particular, have all changed, and become more unpredictable. In the current context, although travel restrictions are gradually lifted in Vietnam, international tourism is still a long way from recovery. Therefore, understanding and boosting domestic tourism demand is the key to partially make up for the losses as well as leverage to restart the tourism activities.

Recently, The Outbox Company (Outbox), travel & hospitality market research firm, conducted research and released the report “Vietnamese travel sentiment” to give a more comprehensive view of Vietnamese travel readiness and intentions in the new era.

The study is carried out in 2 phases. Phase one was conducted from 13th-15th, October 2021, when the whole country has just eased the social distancing to understand the readiness of travelers as well as the awareness of traveling at the time when life has just been normal again. Phase two was conducted from 7th-9th, November 2021, when life has become normal after a period of time, to understand the changing in readiness of travelers as well as their perception towards traveling at that time.

Vietnamese travel sentiment tends to fall down

Overall, after a period of closure, social distancing, rapid spread as well as new variants of the epidemic, many people gradually hesitate to go to crowded places. According to Outbox’s report, although travel restrictions are gradually eased across Vietnam, the time for Vietnamese travelers to confidently travel again will be in the second quarter of 2022 as soonest.

Main factors impacting Vietnamese travel sentiment currently include concerns of personal finances and health, changes in mind about traveling, excitement and openness for travel information.

Obviously, the pandemic has caused terrible economic and financial consequences for countries, businesses, industries in general and individuals in particular. That’s why finance is one of the major factors that directly affect the willingness to travel of many people. However, according to the report, a bright spot in this trend is that travelers are becoming more optimistic about their financial situation, although still at a very modest degree. Outbox’s research showed that the number of travelers who are worried about the effects of the pandemic on their finances decreased by 9.4% compared to the results in phase 1.

Life begins to return to normal, alongside wide and fast vaccination coverage has made travelers less concerned about the impact of the disease on personal health. The number of travelers choosing the health concern related to the epidemic in phase 2 reduced by 6.6% compared with phase 1.

Although financial and health concerns have been somewhat lower, travelers’ optimism and enthusiasm for travel are on a downward trend over time. Findings from the study showed that travelers are more likely to be hesitant to think about travel in the future. During the mid-October period, the travel restriction restrained the travelers’ psychology, thus, the desire for moving freely also increased at that time. On top of that, lockdown diminishing is also a sign to show that the pandemic has turned into a more positive direction. Therefore, when life returns to normal, people always think they are “quite ready” for traveling again. However, after a period of gradually returning to “orbit”, people began to be more hesitant to travel. In particular, the number of travelers choosing to delay their trips also increased by 7.4% in phase 2.

The increased hesitation to travel has led to a decrease in the excitement. In phase 1, when the easing of restrictions was just applied, the excitement level for traveling was high. But over time, the excitement for traveling gradually decreased.

Changing of Vietnam travelers’ mindsets is also reflected in the degree of openness in seeking, receiving travel information and promotions from destinations and travel companies. In particular, in phase 1, travelers are proactive and very open to receive travel information as well as travel products. However, the decreasing level of excitement for traveling also makes travelers less interested in receiving information in the second stage of the survey (down 18.2% compared to phase 1).

Overall, the sentiment index of travelers is decreasing and staying at the consideration stage, which needs a lot of time to actually travel again. Therefore, policies and activities to stimulate the demands along with messages that help reduce concerns about travel should be implemented at the right time in order to properly grasp the psychology and needs of Vietnamese tourists in the new period.

But still keeping travel plans in mind

Travelers’ sentiment index is clearly reflected in the choice of time to travel again. In phase 1, with high sentiment index level, they thought Tet would be a good time to be able to travel again. Meanwhile, in phase 2, travelers tend to delay their trips after Tet holiday (March – June 2022).

According to the report, it is still a long way for international tourism to recover as all travelers in both stages agree that they will only return to travel abroad once the pandemic is controlled. Therefore, until then, domestic tourism will still play an important role in tourism recovery.

Most travelers nowadays prefer to travel to beach destinations or resorts.

Due to the impact of the pandemic, travelers tend to skip the popular and crowded destinations to choose more private places to relax or discover new, unique and interesting destinations instead.

Through the survey, it can be seen that the willingness to travel of Vietnamese tourists is decreasing. However, the good news is that they have eased their financial and health concerns thanks to high vaccine coverage and the new normal. They also keep the intention to travel domestically in mind, despite limiting going to crowded places. Agencies, destinations, and travel businesses can develop policies, products or campaigns with the right message to increase visitor confidence, as well as ensure safety and experience for them in the new time.

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