Malditah Musings

Are You Ready for Smerfs?

The SMERFs, a healthy and growing bunch, are traveling to Asia for Social, Military, Education, religious, and fraternity reasons, offering vast untapped potential for developing regions and recovering said abacus international travel market.

Their reasons for travel is as diverse as war and peace, education and learning, seeking their god or just to catch up with like-minded people, but what they have in common is a will to travel even if times get tough. They do not mind even gathering in non peak times if it will help keep costs down.

These are the SMERFS. Nothing to do with their cuddly namesakes of television fame, they are a resilient group and traveling around Asia their millions for social, military, reasons or religious education, or as part of fraternity groups such as alumni, workplace re-unions or special interest groups.

Abacus International President and CEO, Mr Don Birch says that despite being budget conscious, the SMERFs collectively form a major market and has vast untapped potential for developing or recovering Asian travel market.

Abacus SMERF International estimates that the market across Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore alone is worth U.S. $ 1700000000 a year, based on an accepted formula SMERF us that the market is equal to about 1 / 3 of total meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market.

For their better known cousins the MICE are serviced by specialist divisions within major groups Hotels, travel agencies and dedicated Government programs, the SMERFS is often below the radar and therefore more difficult to measure.

They are durable and budget-conscious travelers who make it ideal for developing or recovering markets or as a complementary segment of the market peak, Mr Birch continued.

The SMERFs helped sustain us hotel and airline industry during the following 9 / 11 terrorist events, and have shown themselves very resilient in the face of international in the face of international events, Don Birch said.

Who SMERFS?

The SMERFs is part of a broader trend in the market travel towards more outcome based travel travel for a purpose other than to see things, and they are better prepared than ever to travel to other countries to achieve their goals by Mr. Birch.

This seemingly diverse group is united by a willingness to travel despite the economic cycle, go to off-peak and even off the beaten track if that is what it takes to track down budget transport and accommodation, Don Birch said.

Social travel traverses the fields of sports, special interest, ethnic, talent and dance organizations, with more and more diverse ethnic and professional associations adding to growth. Examples include women's groups, volunteer workers and social sports teams traveling domestically or inter country for tournaments.

A growing number of car owners joining clubs such as the Philippines BMW.sg, TeamChevy Toyota Club Singapore and the Philippines, is a case in point. Besides their regular monthly meetings where enthusiasts exchange tips on the technical aspects of their vehicles, these clubs also serve as a rallying point for trips abroad, either at Sepang in Malaysia for a day of track racing or to other regional destinations for leisure travel. More in other nations, Lord of the Rings fans have traveled to New Zealand in their thousands to some people experience the magic of movies. A guide book on the filming location is now sold over 300,000 copies being 5 biggest ever selling non-fiction book in New Zealand in the process.

The Lord of the Rings has made the largest film tourism event the world has ever seen. Thousands of people have flocked to Middle earth New Zealand to follow in the footsteps of the hobbits and to bring back some of the emotions they felt when watching a movie or reading the book, says author Ian Brody Location guide, which is selling just as well as a full three years after the last film in the trilogy.

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Strategic Intelligence Centre Director (sic), Mr. John Koldowski says There is also a well beaten path from India sa exotic film locations of Switzerland and Austria, as fans of Bollywood look set their favorite movies.

The social category is a great market for sales of hotel staff who want to fill room blocks in the off-season and the weekend time, but attracting bookings are reliant on repeat business, word of mouth from existing customers, and direct marketing and providing social organizers reserve the right type of accommodation offers, Mr. Birch said.

We used to think about SMERF group as a niche market for budget hotels and hostel style accommodation, now they use convention and conference centers, university facilities, suburban hotels, city hotels, resorts and even unsold apartment complexes.

Military travel

Asias estimated 32 million soldiers are often transferred through the usual military vehicles, but often by civilian travel networks in countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore. No wonder that the Philippines is one of the largest military travel markets in the region. With its more than 400,000 strong army and vast territory of 7,000 islands, even coming and going of soldiers on leave was a highly significant market.

While the exact number is difficult to make way for the sensitivity of military travel, the growing number of websites specializing in military travel in this region, to reveal the size interest in this market and show a highly focused audience for travel suppliers looking to reach this market, Mr Birch said.

Educational travel

The Singapore experience demonstrates the potential of learning travel market. Prospects for the coming educational travel is the promising number of international students in Singapore for long-term study (one month +) growing from 60,000 in 2003 to well over 70,000 in 2005 by Singapore Tourism Board. The Singapore Government is targeting to achieve 150,000 international students by 2015, especially from China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.

From summer camps in immersion programs, travel operators in Asia are starting to discover the value of outbound educational tourism region.

Singapores one of the most established travel operators, Chan Brothers Travel, set up its own Educational Travel Centre (ETC) in 2003 to serve the evolving educational travel market in Singapore, conducting tours for student groups to destinations such as China, England, Germany, Australia and Turkey during the holidays Students of June and December.

Another relative newcomer to the educational landscape tour, Wing At Travel in Hong Kong offers English language and activity tour to Britain, Australia, Singapore, Canada and mainland China. Reflecting their commitment to serve the emerging markets of travel, the agency decided to create a dedicated educational tour division. The company launched its first study tour in 2004 and this year plan to take groups of 14 in Britain alone.

Mr Birch says, "This travel segment has a high growth potential but travel operators need to be aware of the challenges inherent in conducting educational tours for school groups. Parents expectations, cultural differences and understanding is set for homesick young students are just some of the many issues tour operators will have to address through equipping their staff with the necessary skill sets and expertise.

While students from Hong Kong and Singapore are venturing to foreign shores for a broad educational experience, Indian students will learn Indias own cultural identity and heritage. Mr P Saravanan, from Viking Tours and trips to Chennai, South India said that school groups are mainly traveling to experience the history, culture and monuments of other Indian states are usually in groups of 25-40 people.

The school group is very budget accommodation to their needs. That is 1 or 2 stars, as many as 3 or 4 children each sharing a room, but it is certainly an important market, because the school back to a number of times, the families of children who grow them up, so this is an important part of marketing, Mr Saravanan said.

A pioneer in educational travel segment, Thai tour operator Track of the Tiger has run educational tour for students from Australia and the UK for over ten years. Mr Shane Beary, Director, said that the demand for educational programs in its Maekok River Village Resort & Outdoor Education Centre have been growing at an average rate of 25 to30% in the last five years and recorded 7,500 room nights in 2005. In a market base has grown to include students from Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Thailand, Track of the Tiger now offers programs Pang Soong lodge, its new Outdoor Education & Research Centre in Mae On, Chiang Mai, covering a range of environmental and outdoor programs for groups of students, as well as team building and 'voluntourism the options for the corporate sector.

Commented Mr. Beary, our experience has shown that there are many overlaps between educational, volunteer and eco tourism, which where we have tried to build on developing our programs.

Religious travel

As one of the worlds most populous and largest regions, Asia is recognized as the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism.

Countries such as China, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the Philippines have a cultural heritage steeped in some of the world major religion, and government policies to develop joint tourist attractions such as the Buddhist circuit in Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka and India has certainly grown pie for their religious tourism market, said Mr Birch.

Responsive, fair John Koldowski said, "Religious traffic tends to be fueled by domestic bookings but increasingly, there are more organized pilgrimages for inbound tourists who usually cover more than one destination. For example, has a unique Buddhist circuit such as the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka and a trail cover revered Buddhist sites in India.

With a myriad of religions sites across the country, India has a strong religious group tour operators to cater to many domestic and foreign pilgrims to the crowd during peak India During the trip in April, May and November.

Mr Ashok Negi, from Rajarani travel in Mumbai reports that the tours run by his agency and its network of six branch offices throughout India has facilitated pilgrimages for more than 50,000 tourists to various religious sites in the country. According to Mr. Negi, visits to popular religious sites like the temple of Vaishnodevi and Tirupati constitute as much as 25% of Indias domestic tourism.

Christianity is different religious fueling growth in other Asian destinations, the Philippines. Having provided its services for more than four decades in Southeast Asias most populous Catholic country, Catholic Travel, Inc. has positioned itself as the pilgrimage Specialist.

According to Ms. Carmina Orbe, general manager, most pilgrims are from the Philippines, and they also have pilgrims from Hong Kong, Rome, Canada and Los Angeles are not only taking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Israel) but having a pilgrimage to the Philippines. Priests who have joined our pilgrimages to the Holy Land has found a renewed inspiration in their vocational activities for the community. I guess the visit has brought new meaning to the places and events in the Bible as their only study seminar before.

In Asia, missionary teams are also frequent travelers, with agencies such as World Vision and Youth With a Mission (YWAM), mobilizing large The number of people annually. For example, YWAM Singapore takes approximately 150 volunteers to developing countries in the region such as Myanmar, Indonesia and India, over 9:55 such trips every year.

Fraternal travel

Although not as big a market and educational or religious journey, a growing number of civil associations and groups such as Rotary International and Lions Clubs International began to look to Asia as a possible destination for their international gatherings.

The Rotary Club held its international convention in Singapore, its first Southeast Asia area in 1999, and again in Osaka, Japan in May 2004 for more than 45,000 rotary club members from 96 countries. Lions Clubs International held its 88th International Convention in Hong Kong from 27 June to 1 July 2005, is set at approximately 20,000 Lions Club members and their association with family members and friends. It generated approximately U.S. $ 19,000,000 of direct tourism spending and spin-off business for the retail, catering and tourism-related sectors.

MICE traditional destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong have paved the way for Asias rise as a conventions place on the world stage. This has allowed emerging economies in Thailand, India and Vietnam to offer companies and fraternal associations more variety in their selection of meeting venues Mr Birch said.

Targeting SMERFs

There are some common issues received target market SMERF Mr. abacus Don Birch. For example recent cost increases in the Asia hotel sector which saw average room rates to rise in major cities (eg 17% last year Singapore) is not good news for SMERFs.

More meetings and higher hotel prices can limit options for SMERFS, but planners can still SMERF find open arms in markets such as second and third tier cities eager to lure back budget groups, said Mr Birch.

For sales and marketing managers within the industry, finding SMERF planners is harder than finding planners Association.

Finding local contacts affiliated with the kind of group is critical. Local networking is also needed to identify SMERF groups and their planners. Research resources such as directories of organizations, affordable meetings conferences, and even the personal networks of an employee propertys all have their place in pinning down the SMERFs, Mr Birch said.

The internet also plays a key role as both a research and communication channel for both SMERF planners and sales and marketing team.

The internet clearly improves the opportunity to buyers and sellers in the universe SMERF finding a good match location, location and the experience offered during the trip, Mr Birch added.

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