INDUSTRY OPINION 54
Gary Bowerman*
Covid sparks innovation in domestic tourism Covid has triggered a major tourism reset across Asia, with governments forced to pivot to the domestic market, which prior to the pandemic received little support in terms of finance and marketing.
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or example, Malaysia’s 44-page National Tourism Policy 2020-2030 (published in December 2020 by the Minister for Tourism Arts & Culture) doesn’t make a single reference to domestic tourism. This meant that most countries were seriously under-prepared when COVID-19 forced the shutdown of international travel. Through COVID-19 necessity, with international borders closed, official attitudes have shifted over the past 16 months. Governments and tourism boards have implored residents to travel and spend more domestically almost as a civic duty to help keep the tourism industry afloat and support the national economy. Over recent months, we have seen significant innovation in domestic travel services by private sector tourism players, particularly in the areas of health and wellness travel, soft adventure, F&B, trekking, photography and mountain biking tours. In Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, we have seen strong growth in hiking, camping, nature trekking, mountain biking, road and hill cycling, ziplining and river sports.
Asia Gaming Briefings | August 2021
The visible results of this eagerness for new outdoor experiences has been available for everyone to see on social media platforms – but it remains uncertain whether tourism boards will tap into this huge resource of new and exciting user-generated destination content to further develop the domestic sector. As we are seeing from the reopening proposals in Phuket, Thailand, governments and tourism boards still view inbound tourism as their overriding priority. In advance of welcoming back foreign visitors, significant marketing spend is being invested into video content promotions exclusively for international markets. In some ways, this simply reflects economic reality. Over the past 16 months, finance ministers have noted that domestic tourism simply cannot fill the void in terms of trip numbers and expenditure – and, therefore, is unlikely to attract much-needed foreign investment to support post-pandemic economic recovery. Inbound tourism brings more than just national cachet to tourism board target setters, it is a viable route to foreign exchange and capital investment.
