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Asian travelers are increasingly traveling internationally, averaging around 1.9 trips in the next six months, or one trip every two months. This increased frequency of travel and preference for nearby destinations is significantly changing how Asian travelers choose their next travel destination. Survey data shows that travelers are increasingly selecting destinations based on their exposure to information, imagery, and branding. This necessitates a new approach from destinations and businesses to destination marketing and communication, with the crucial role of understanding destination branding and imagery metrics.
Recently, The Outbox Company released its 2024 Southeast Asia Destination Brand Performance Report titled “How Southeast Asia Destinations are Perceived by Asian Travelers.”
Asian tourists (excluding China) visiting Southeast Asia accounted for approximately 40% of the total international visitors to the region in 2023.
This report provides key brand and communication performance indicators for seven leading tourist destinations in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) in the perception of Asian tourists. It aims to help businesses and destinations in the region, and Vietnam in particular, gain important insights into each destination's brand capabilities and how tourists perceive those destinations, enabling them to develop a more effective and distinctive brand communication strategy compared to competitors.
The data for this report is extracted from The Outbox Company's proprietary Asia Travel Market Tracker platform, based on direct surveys of nearly 3,000 Asian travelers.
The research results show that the level of investment in destination brand communication in Southeast Asia remains limited compared to destinations in Northeast Asia, with most countries in the region having destination brand index scores below the regional benchmark of Asia.
Tourists are increasingly choosing destinations based on the level of information, imagery, and branding they receive about that destination.
Singapore and Thailand have the highest Destination Brand Strength scores, exceeding the Asian average at 152.0 and 147.8 respectively. These two destinations also outperform other countries in the region in indicators such as destination's offerings familiarity, destination's appeal, and promise to visit. This result is entirely consistent with the level of investment in destination marketing and the attractive tourism policies that Singapore has implemented for visitors from these two countries in recent years; and it once again affirms the importance of marketing in attracting tourists at present.
Besides the leading group of countries including Singapore and Thailand, Malaysia also performed relatively well in this measurement, with several indicators exceeding the average for the entire Asian region.
Most Southeast Asian countries share commonalities, being attractive destinations for tourists due to their indigenous cultural values. However, each country also possesses its own unique image to attract Asian tourists compared to other destinations in the region. Vietnam's most distinctive values in the eyes of Asian tourists are its beautiful natural landscapes, rich local culture, and the safety of the destination.
One of the most important indicators in the report that destinations need to pay attention to is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which reflects how willing travelers are to return or recommend the destination to others. The NPS score reflects not only the brand health of the destination but also the satisfaction of travelers with their experience at the destination. Accordingly, Singapore and Thailand once again appear to have the best NPS scores in the region.
Most Southeast Asian countries share a common characteristic: they are attractive tourist destinations due to their rich local cultural values.
The report's findings provide a clearer picture of the brand performance of countries in the region. It can be seen that countries with strong tourism performance have similar destination brand indicators. Investing in enhancing brand capacity and destination marketing communication will be a new challenge for the tourism industry in Southeast Asia, especially in the current competitive Asian market.
