Brand USA Newsletter - November 2018

Brand USA registered the largest partner participation for the ITB Asia 2018, a leading travel trade show which experienced its own record-breaking attendance this year.

The destination marketing organization’s pavilion for the Oct. 17-19 event in Singapore saw the largest turnout with 45 Brand USA partners attending the event.  In its 11th year, the travel trade show attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors and over 1,000 top-level buyers and resulted in 25,000 business appointments completed. This year’s show registered an 8.9 percent increase in visitor numbers, representing 127 countries, compared to 113 countries at last year’s event. 

Brand USA teamed up with the U.S. embassies and the U.S. Commercial Service to organize a series of trade events at ITB Asia and provide business opportunities for U.S. exhibitors to meet with nearly 80 Southeast Asian travel buyers including wholesalers, tour operators and agencies, online travel agencies and meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibition (MICE) planners, as well as media representatives.

Brand USA events at ITB Asia included:

• Pavilion kick-off ceremony: Stephen Jacques, Deputy Senior Commercial Officer for Commercial Affairs from the U.S. Embassy, Singapore officiated the ribbon-cutting event for the pavilion opening.
• Window to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brand USA, along with the Southeast Asian offices of the U.S. Commercial Services in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar and the Philippines, shared at a breakfast marketing briefing the latest outbound travel updates and marketing opportunities with the U.S. exhibitors. The briefing also featured important updates by Donald Anderson, attaché from the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol.
• Brand USA Southeast Asia Travel Exchange and Reception: During this travel trade seminar, U.S. destinations and attractions presented their latest product news to 80 ITB buyers from Southeast Asia.
• International Media Marketplace Asia (IMM Asia) – Representatives of more than 60 media outlets from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand met with exhibitors during this full-day event on October 16.

In addition, Brand USA held its first-ever Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore business-to-business (B2B) day on October 15.  In partnership with Cathay Pacific, the event served as a business stop-over for USA destination marketing organizations (DMOs) heading to Singapore for ITB Asia.

The full-day event created outreach opportunities to jointly promote the USA. Buyers from Hong Kong and Singapore were flown in to join Taiwanese counterparts for over 392 one-to-one meetings with U.S.  direct marketing organizations, hotels, attractions and suppliers. Wellington Chu, the commercial officer from the American Institute in Taiwan, attended the event.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore - with a combined population of only about 37 million – accounted for over 700,000 visitors to the USA in 2017, with Taiwan making it to the top 20 list of source markets for visitation to the USA.  Taiwan and Singapore have been part of the U.S, Visa Waiver Program and their passport holders have been eligible for Global Entry since 2017 and 2016, respectively.

This comes at a time when outbound visitation from Taiwan to the USA has increased annually 5 percent to 8 percent.  Aviation in Taiwan has developed to about 108 weekly direct flights to various U.S. gateways in 2017. Cathay Pacific will commence Hong Kong-Seattle non-stop service in March 2019, giving Asian travelers another option when visiting the Pacific Coast. 

As Brand USA continues to promote USA as a diverse travel destination, marketing initiatives such as the recently released Travel Trade Website also provide a platform for trade partners to customize itineraries for their clients. Through multiple strategies, Brand USA works with the partners to achieve the goal of 90 million global visitations by 2021.

Meanwhile, award-winning journalist Raini Hamdi interviewed Brand USA Senior Manager of Global Development Louis Lu during ITB Asia regarding the Southeast Asia market.  He said the destination marketing organization is experiencing promotional budget increases for Southeast Asia and is focusing on attracting incentive groups from the region to the US. 

The story was shared through TTG Asia e-Daily to about 40,000 subscribers. The article also can be found on TTG Asia Website and the videos are on YouTube. Feel free to review the full article at: https://www.ttgasia.com/2018/11/01/video-interview-brand-usa-sees-bigger-budget-for-se-asia-eyes-incentives/ 

Brand USA will be sharing the article on its Facebook, Instagram, Linked In and Twitter to spread this message with the travel professionals.

In other news, Brand USA was able to secure an opportunity to participate in the first-ever EVA Air Marathon on Oct. 28.  A total of 20,000 marathon runners participated at this annual event. 

Together with EVA Air, Brand USA showcased the trailer for its big-screen film, “American Musical Journey,” inspiration guides and selective giveaways to enrolled runners. Visit California, Visit Houston, Lion Travel, Spunk Tours, EverFun Holidays also were invited to showcase their latest USA travel updates. Runners who enrolled in this marathon were eligible to be a part of the lucky draw for 10 round-trip flight tickets, including the USA, and overseas marathon trips.