Brand USA Newsletter - December 2017

Brand USA Pavilion at ITB Asia Creates Valuable Connections for U.S. Exhibitors

Brand USA’s exhibition pavilion at the ITB Asia 2017 in Singapore was a major success, paving the way for exhibitors from the United States to engage in business opportunities with nearly 100 Southeast Asia travel industry representatives.

Teaming up with U.S. Embassies and the U.S. Commercial Service, Brand USA organized a series of trade events for the Tenth Annual ITB Asia 2017, the leading travel trade exposition for the Southeast Asia tourism industry, held October 25-27, 2017.

Brand USA, which has participated in the show for the past five years, arranged a myriad of events for U.S. exhibitors to meet with wholesalers, tour operators and agencies, meetings, incentives, conference and exhibitions (MICE) planners, and media representatives.  The events included:

▪ International Media Marketplace Asia: Representatives of more than 80 prominent media outlets from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand met exhibitors during this full-day event.

▪ Brand USA Pavilion Kick-Off Ceremony: Craig Allen, the U.S. ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, conducted the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Brand USA Pavilion.

▪ Window to ASEAN: Brand USA partnered with the Southeast Asian offices of the U.S. Commercial Services in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and The Philippines to share the latest outbound travel updates and marketing opportunities with U.S. exhibitors.

▪ Brand USA Southeast Asia Travel Exchange and Reception: U.S. destinations and attractions presented their latest products to the 100 leading Southeast Asian buyers.

Brand USA also distributed its U.S. Travel Tip Kits to travel buyers. The kits provided an overview of the United States through regional itineraries, maps, and information on gateway cities and nearby destinations.

Southeast Asia - which include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines, and Vietnam – is the third largest in the world after China with a travel market of 633 million residents and with tourism spending close to $6 billion, fueled by the rising per capital income.  (In Singapore alone, there are about 150,000 millionaires, according to Credit Suisse Research Institute).

As such, this is a significant market for Brand USA.  The number of travelers to the U.S. has registered a steady growth.

This also comes at a time when the region is experiencing enhanced air travel to the United States.  Air Asia X, the long-haul arm of Air Asia, launched one-stop services from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Honolulu, Hawaii four times a week.  United Airlines began daily non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, California while Scoot Tigerair is launching one-stop service from Singapore to Hawaii in December and Garuda Indonesia is planning to re-operate its flight service to U.S. via a transit in Japan before heading to Los Angeles or New York City, New York.  Next year, Singapore Airlines will launch its non-stop service from Singapore to New York City and Los Angeles via a brand new ultra-long-range variant of the Airbus A350.