"China and India’s growing middle class have a huge appetite for travel."

The traditional package holiday requirements of sun, sea and sand will be replaced with sightseeing, shopping and status as emerging markets shape the travel industry of the 21st century.

These are the predictions of travel consulting company Tourism Intelligence International which monitors travel patterns across the globe.

The consultancy’s managing director Dr Auliana Poon told a packed WTM seminar on emerging markets that travel providers needed to understand the “new markets” and their requirements as they would be the saving grace of the industry as old economies continue to struggle.

She said: “The emerging markets will lead the recovery from the economic crisis. If you compare the old and new markets, the traditional markets have slower growth, have a slower rate of growth in millionaires and have an ageing population. The new markets have a young, dynamic, increasingly wealthy demographic and it is they who will pull us into recovery.”

She added: “In the old days people came back from their holidays with a tan to show they had been away. Now the emerging markets want to come back with shopping purchases to show they have the wealth and status to travel.

“Many of these travellers won’t have been able to travel in the past because their governments wouldn’t let them. They are now eager to see other cultures, shop in new environments and acquire the status that goes with that.”

China and India’s growing middle class have a huge appetite for travel, said Poon .

“The Chinese only get one to two weeks a year for their holidays. Believe me, if they had six there would not be enough hotel rooms in the world to accommodate them.”

But she warned that the travel industry was too entrenched in serving the white, European holidaymaker when it needed to wake up and realise the needs of the new markets were very different.

“The Chinese may not ask for dog at dinner… but then again they just might and you should be able to cater for that.

"Wealthy Indians often travel with their own chef because they can’t get the food they want.

"Let us not judge but understand these new markets and let’s teach our chefs to cook for them. Let’s cater for the Indian and Chinese and Russian wedding, not just the European one.

“Let’s offer halal-assured food. The market is segmenting and we need to run with that. These are the markets that are going to generate the income we want for the future.”

She added that with 253 million web users in China and more mobile phones than landlines in China and India, travel providers also needed to make sure their offering was totally accessible on as many platforms as possible.

“If you’re not online, you’re not on sale,” she concluded.

- by Dinah Hatch

• The article is reproduced courtesy of TravelMole Australia/NZ/Asia