Hoteliers in Southeast Asia are seeing an increase in intra-regional travel, which could receive a further boost once trade barriers are loosened under the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015

　　Hoteliers in Southeast Asia are seeing an increase in intra-regional travel, which could receive a further boost once trade barriers are loosened under the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

　　Travel is on the rise in Southeast Asia, but the jury’s still out on the potential impact of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community regarding the movement of tourists and laborers, according experts during last month’s No Vacancy Southeast Asia conference.

　　The AEC, the result of decades of meetings by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aims to foster regional economic integration by 2015. Part of that goal is to enable a freer flow of skilled labor and Southeast Asian travelers by creating loosening barriers to trade between participating nations.

　　Bill Barnett, director of consulting firm C9 Hotelworks, was skeptical the AEC would achieve its stated goals—to say nothing of unintended consequences.

　　“If it happens, it could be the next best thing, but there’s little understanding of what it means,” he said. “Will it be easier to own a hotel or a tour business in another country? It could trigger a (merger-and-acquisition) spree.”

　　Andrew Langston, VP for hotels operations at Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, was more optimistic about the possibilities—both among travelers and for his own company.

　　On a 280-hectare beachfront plot of land about an hour north of Da Nang, Vietnam, Banyan Tree hopes to replicate on a larger scale the hotel-and-residences resort model it pioneered in Phuket 16 years ago. While two hotels and a Nick Faldo golf course are already built at the Laguna Lang Co Beach Resort in Vietnam, the long-term plan is to build four more properties and 1,000 villas for long-term leasehold. The target customer bases would include travelers from Hong Kong, Singapore and China seeking holiday homes.

　　If the AEC delivers on its promises, it should become easier for Vietnamese and Indonesians to get visas, Langston said.

　　For the hotel industry, “it may allow more employees to work across borders, executives too,” he said. “The more mature hospitality person will have more career options.”

　　Plugging in to China

　　Chinese travelers, meanwhile, already have emerged as a significant source of demand within Southeast Asia, speakers said.

　　Although their global bookings aren’t spontaneous because visas are required, the enormous growth in mainland Chinese visitors is keeping up occupation rates in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, speakers said.

　　Through May, hotels in Southeast Asia recorded increases in the three key performance metrics, according to STR Global. Occupancy was up 1.7% to 71.3%, average daily rate was up 5.3% to $147.25 and revenue per available room was up 7% to $105.06.

　　Countries included in STR Global’s breakdown of Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

　　In 2011, 1.7 million Chinese visited Thailand, the most popular country, but their numbers could top 3.3 million in 2013, according to the Asia Pacific Forecast 2013-2017 produced by the Pacific Asia Travel Association and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

　　Singapore, the second most popular Chinese destination, is expected to count 2.2 million mainland visitors this year. That’s up from 1.5 million last year.

　　“China is the hot topic. It’s a lower price point but there’s volume,” Barnett said. “We’re seeing more Asian tourists in general.”

　　As for other trends, he said Myanmar will continue its reforms and “opening to the free market and Westernization. It will be much quicker than the slow trickle-down we have seen in Vietnam in the past decade.”