ATTA reports adventure travel recovering in Asia Pacific
According to the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), adventure travel is ‘recovering strongly’ in the Asia Pacific region following the pandemic.
That good news comes in the association’s 2024 State of the Adventure Travel Industry Snapshot, and reveals that in 2023, the average number of guests per operator with a headquartered country in Asia was 2,636, a strong upward trend from 2020-2022, and approaching the 2019 average number of 3,263. Trip fill rates are also strong, with APAC’s 2023 62 per cent rate nearing the global 2023 average of 65 per cent.
It also found that the composition of guests for Asia-based tour operator guests has also seen a jump toward FITs, made up of families (26 per cent from 17 per cent in 2022) and couples (33 per cent from 20 per cent), whilst the percentage handling groups has decreased to 24% from 2019’s 49 per cent.
Emerging travel destinations
Looking at primary source and host markets, India has emerged as an important adventure travel source market over the past two years, with four per cent of responding tour operators naming it as their primary source of guests, making it the fifth largest source market.
While no APAC destinations were in the top seven host markets in this year’s ATTA research, Japan featured in 4th place in last year’s report, and this list tends to fluctuate due to short-term trends and responding operators. This also aligns with Japan moving up to 4th place in the top five global travel markets, with travel contributing $297 billion to its economy in 2023.
As for trending destination, ATTA notes that as with the primary host markets list, destinations become popular for different reasons. North-East Asia climbed from fourteenth spot to fourth, influenced by the reopening of China in March 2023 and the depreciation of the Japanese yen vs the US Dollar. South-East Asia also saw upward movement, from tenth to seventh.
However, South Asia and Oceania both decreased in popularity in 2023 as an adventure travel destination. This could be due to a multitude of factors: higher airfares, a natural leveling-off from the post-COVID border reopening surge last year, or simply a swing in popular culture and consumer preferences.
Trending activities
In terms of trending activities, ATTA reported that hiking/trekking/walking is consistently the top adventure activity across the globe, and this year is no exception for both the APAC region and worldwide.
Cultural activities are also very popular in the APAC region, having seen strong growth since 2021, although this year it shares its popularity with other activities like camping and climbing, which are uniquely popular in the APAC region. Culinary adventures trended downward for the APAC region (fourth) compared to worldwide (second), despite gastronomy being known as a popular reason to visit many APAC destinations.
“Japan in particular stands out as a destination that has seen a huge surge in popularity since it fully re-opened in spring 2023,” said ATTA member Matt Blench, director of EXO Adventure. “Cycling and trekking tours are by far the two most popular adventure activities and demand is outstripping supply. Indonesia has exploded back onto the scene, especially as a trekking and climbing destination combined with camping. We’ve seen 100 per cent growth in 2024 when compared to 2019.”
Sustainability in focus
Also of note is that fact that sustainability certifications is a focus as tour operators headquartered in the APAC region have seen slightly more interest in sustainability certification than the rest of the world, with 57% of APAC respondents holding or pursuing some kind of certification, compared to 51% in other regions.
As for the future, Hannah Pearson, Regional Director APAC at ATTA, said that: “Looking into 2025, I think we can expect to see hiking and cultural activities stay in the top five most popular adventure activities for APAC.”
Pearson continued: “I also expect to see Oceania trending as a destination once more, driven by a greater focus on adventure travel in general from the region. However, it will be interesting to watch if camping and climbing maintain their popularity, or if they are a flash in the pan for the region, being new entrants in 2024.”
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