Comscore Snapshots: Travel in the Asia-Pacific Region
In this week’s edition of Comscore Snapshots, we look at travel trends in the Asia-Pacific region. We include statistics for India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Our snapshot also covers websites and mobile apps that provide travel services (e.g., airlines, hotels, car transportation), online travel agencies, and sites that provide information resources and discounts.
In most markets, the proportion of internet users who also visited travel-related sites increased in June 2021. The increase was most pronounced in Japan, which may well be related to the Summer Olympics. Given the restrictions on international travel applied by many countries (Australia, for example, bars all entry into the country), it is likely that a greater share of consumer spend goes towards local tourism.
| % reach of total digital population | Year-on-Year percentage points variation |
Australia | 40.1 | 4.5 |
Hong Kong | 58.5 | 4.7 |
India | 31.9 | 1.7 |
Indonesia | 31.3 | 6.5 |
Japan | 28.3 | 6.7 |
Malaysia | 24.5 | -2.7 |
Singapore | 25.8 | 5.7 |
Taiwan | 49.9 | -12.8 |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, June 2021, Asia-Pacific region.
The online travel ecosystem is relatively fragmented: very few entities reach more than 1% of the digital population. Also, compared with other categories such as gaming, market characteristics (infrastructure, language, culture, etc.) make international expansion a challenge. As a result, with the exception of a few global entities such as Tripadvisor, very few entities span multiple countries.
| Number of travel-related websites or mobile apps that reach more than 1% of the total digital population | Top travel entity |
Australia | 9 | TripAdvisor Inc. |
Hong Kong | 11 | New Media Group Travel Network |
India | 14 | Indian Railways |
Indonesia | 7 | Gojek.com |
Japan | 13 | Rakuten.co.jp - travel |
Malaysia | 6 | Grab Holdings |
Singapore | 9 | TripAdvisor Inc. |
Taiwan | 14 | ETtoday Travel |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, June 2021, Asia-Pacific region.
To some extent, the demographic composition of the travel category reflects the demographic composition of the country. For example, individuals aged 25 to 34 are most likely to use travel-related websites or apps in India, Indonesia or Malaysia – which are all countries with relatively young populations. On the other hand, in Japan, where the population is older, it is the segment aged 35+ that is most likely to use travel-related websites or apps.
Reach (%) of the travel category, by demographic segment
| India | Indonesia | Japan | Malaysia |
18-24 | 32 | 29 | 18 | 24 |
25-34 | 36 | 37 | 21 | 28 |
35+ | 31 | 32 | 32 | 27 |
Male | 37 | 34 | 33 | 25 |
Female | 27 | 31 | 26 | 29 |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, June 2021, Asia-Pacific region.
A look at the trend since January 2020 shows that travel-related activity has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. Travel audiences declined simultaneously in all markets and bounced back thereafter. However, both the timing and the magnitude of the bounce differs from country to country: in Japan, for example, the bounce occurred in June 2021, while in Indonesia it happened in December 2020. In other countries such as India or Malaysia, traffic is still well below the level reached in January 2020.
