The International Luxury Travel Market Asia Pacific (ILTM) has opened in Singapore with more than 740 selected luxury travel buyers from 22 countries across the region meeting with 740 luxury travel suppliers from across the globe – a 12 per cent increase year on year.
ILTM Asia Pacific 2025 is once again set to bring the Asia Pacific’s best international Travel Advisors to meet the world’s most spectacular travel experiences, over four days of one-to-one meetings pre-scheduled appointments, educational sessions and networking events.
In total, an estimated 40,000 dedicated trade appointments will take place throughout the week with Travel Weekly on site to report all the news and latest in luxury trends.
Setting the scene for the week ahead, Dr Simon Baptist, principal Asia-Pacific Economist, Business and Economic Insights at Visa offered the first insight with his topic An Economic Outlook at the Opening Forum at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore.
In 2024, Asia’s share of global GDP was 55 per cent, a significant increase from previous decades, largely driven by the rapid economic growth China of and India, making it a key region for growth opportunities. Geo-economic risks are weighing on the growth outlook, with the rise of industrial policy likely having a major effect on the outlook for various industries in the region.
Growth in Asia is getting tougher. It’s not as easy as it used to be,” he said. “One of them is the big slowdown in China. China is now mature economy. The era of China as a fast growing emerging market is finished. It will never come back.
“China will never grow by 6,7, 8, per cent again. It’s now growing by about four and a half (per cent). It’s going to go down, down, down, down, down, every year. By the end of the decade is probably going to be growing by 3 per cent.”
But the rich of the region are still spending, he said, estimating a $2.14 trillion market for affluent spending, with 48 per cent of the world’s new affluent going to be in the APAC region.
“So it’s still a huge market, but we just have to be more selective about how we go about how how we go about getting it,” he said. “Over the last year, we’ve seen in our data what people spend on on their Visa cards, affluent spending is growing by 20 per cent a year.”
Baptist also explored the major trends that may affect the region and the interplay between the business environment, geopolitics, and economic
growth.
While Japan and Australia have been the two biggest sources of high net worth individuals in this region, China, since the pandemic has overtaken them both to become No.1. But India will, in the end, overtake Japan and Australia as well, “but it’ll probably take another 15 years or so”.
Short haul versus long haul travel had also been impacted since covid.
“Short haul travel has been an increasing trend for travellers from mainland China, whereas in India… long haul travel is is more is more desirable,” he said.
“Part of this does reflect the different drivers of travel from each region. So for India, a really common driver of traveling is family connections,” he said and included Australia in that equation as it has a major Indian diaspora.
As for the future, Baptist said Asia is still the fastest growing region and there is still a lot of new opportunities but also some challenges, “particularly with the uncertainty around Trump’s trade war and the amount of trade exposure this region has different markets have different levels of exposure to it.”
Add longevity to wellness
In the second address Wellness: Exploring the Luxury Traveller’s Mindset, Alison Gilmore, portfolio director, ILTM said the global concept of ‘wellness’ continues to shift and is no longer just about longer stays in spa days and massages but also about integrating fitness, mental health, and overall balance into travel. But one other word was becoming more common, she said.
“Everybody knows the word of the year is longevity. We all want to live longer. We all want to live healthier. But it’s the one word that’s out there a lot,” she said.
In this year’s Buzz vs. Reality report, ILTM partnered with Aliant to survey affluent travellers across key markets in Asia Pacific, building a snapshot of wellness travel today and where it is headed.
Recent years have seen the travel industry evolve in different directions, from the rise of slow travel, revival of slow travel such as long-distance trains, and ‘coolcationing’. Travelling with purpose and meaning has become a cornerstone for many wealthy travellers’ plans.
One of the key findings of the survey was that 66per cent said Travel Agents are influential.
“That’s great news for half the audience we have here this week,” she said..
The report is available for download from HERE.
Frozen moments
In Epic Adventures, Hong Kong-based adventurer Rob Lilwall shared stories from his epic expeditions, and the important lessons which he learned which can also help us all as we face our own challenges.
In the last two decades, he has embarked on expeditions by bicycle and on foot, covering over 50,000km of the world’s land surface, including across Siberia and the Gobi (in winter), China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Iran.
National Geographic have made two television series about his exploits, and he is the author of two books, Cycling Home From Siberia and Walking Home From Mongolia.
He demonstrated how cold it cycling in -40C Siberia by having the audience pretend to hold a tub of ice-cream in their bare hand – for six months!
Read all abou Day 1 and Day 2 .
