It would be logical to think that if there was one more thing the region's travel media really didn't need, it was the boxing day tsunami. It was, after all, a shocking and devastating event that killed thousands of holidaymakers and flattened travel destinations dotted all over the map.
But the publishing sector that was repeatedly savaged by Sars, bird flu and terrorist bombings has apparently managed to escape from the tsunami unscathed.
Travel specialists are, in fact, predicting a bumper 2005 as ever-greater numbers of Asians take to the skies, and as new categories of advertisers look to their titles as a way to reach them. Publishers are even looking to new markets in which to expand.
"This year is just amazing," says Olivier Burlot, CEO and publisher of Adkom Media Group, which publishes Action Asia, Asia Spa (launched in 2003), Asia Spa India, Asia-Pacific Boating and China Boating, launched just over a year ago. "Compared to last year, we're up between 40 to 60 per cent (in terms of advertising revenue). It's a really big progression.
"The region is doing very, very well. Being niche magazines that suffered a lot in 2002 and 2003, the ones that survived grew in 2004 and are today getting the fruits of their hard work."
Peggy Teo, publisher of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific and the year-old Business Traveller China, says that as far as advertising is concerned, the tsunami barely registered a blip. Most of the destinations affected were predominantly leisure rather than business focused. "If it had been somewhere like Bangkok, it would have been different," she says.
But business travellers take holidays too, and it seems they've not been put off going to the countries affected by the tsunami.
"We've asked them whether they've stopped going to Phuket, and I think they've been among the first ones to bounce back, and quite a few have been back several times," says Teo.
A survey by online Asian travel portal Zuji in the first quarter of this year found that 64 per cent of site users planned to visit Phuket in the next 12 months, and only seven per cent feared repeat tsunamis. Colombo, in Sri Lanka, dropped out of the 50 most popular destinations following the tsunami, however, having ranked 10th and 16th in Q3 and Q4 of last year.
For some travel publishers, the tsunami even had an upside. Specialist travel website SmartTravelAsia.com doubled its visitor traffic after the tsunami to the current 70,000 per month. Revenue from advertising has more than doubled in the past year.
Publisher Vijay Verghese says the site switched from its monthly magazine format immediately following the disaster into a daily touchpoint with news-style coverage of relief efforts, resort damage, and recovery timelines. "Curiously, our tsunami page remains one of our most frequently visited on the site today," Verghese says. At bi-monthly magazine DestinAsian, publisher Ronald Liem says circulation is up 10 per cent this year compared to last year, and advertising revenue is also growing. "The tsunami was certainly a setback for some areas, like the resorts in Phuket, Sri Lanka and the Maldives," he says.
"We're seeing a lot of the resorts in Thailand spending more money with us to make noise, saying 'we're still open for business, we're not affected'."
While budgets for traditional travel magazine advertisers -- hotels, resorts, airlines and tourist boards -- are going up this year, there is increasing competition among media outlets courting them for a slice of it.
Pan-regional television has had notable success in this area, with news channels like CNN and BBC World attracting tourism boards in big numbers, along with the newly relaunched Discovery Travel & Living, AXN and National Geographic Channel.
In March, for instance, Discovery announced a tie-up with Malaysian Airlines in which the in-flight menu was at the heart of a 'Fly and Feast' competition, in which the winners get the chance to dine at the restaurants of the channel's celebrity chefs.
Publishers say there's enough spend to go around, and that television's gain isn't necessarily their loss.
"CNN did amazingly well in 2004," says Burlot. But he says several tourist boards which have signed with news channels have since been put off by the kind of news imagery that their ads get sandwiched between. Immediately after the tsunami, ads on international TV for several tourist boards -- some of them not even in Asia -- were taken off the air for reasons of taste.
"They said they got on CNN and it was great for their ego, but for their image, they're not so sure," Burlot says.
Not every advertiser can afford to produce high quality television commercials and to get them to air. Many of those that can are doing it as a complement to other media, rather than instead of it. And while the travel press may be losing a few of its traditional advertisers, it is attracting more money from others, and bringing in new categories.
Liem says the launch in December last year of more advertorial-style themed specials in DestinAsian is getting bookings from advertisers who don't ordinarily buy space in the magazine. Thai island resorts were the subject of an April special, and spa resorts around the region were the focus in June.
At Business Traveller, new categories this year include cosmetics brands, luxury accessories, and insurance. "Everywhere, hotels are spending more and they're targeting business travellers. They've realised that business travellers are much more stable when there's a crisis, and they're probably higher yield as well," says Teo.
Burlot says Rolex recently signed a two-year contract with Asia Spa, and that the boating magazines are also hooking new clients. "People who are into yachting of course have a watch and of course have a car," he says. Boating Asia-Pacific's advertisers include Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Aston Martin and Veuve Clicquot.
Online, it's a similar story. "Our advertising has grown in both depth and range," says Verghese. "As a lifestyle product catering for an affluent audience, our appeal is fairly broad-based.
"We started with national tourist offices -- the obvious choice for a prime destination marketing venue looking for big-budget spend -- and hotels, and have extended into airlines, spas, cameras and fashion. We're now looking at designer brands, watches and motorcars -- essentially, clients wishing to display their message in a live, out-of-the-box, multimedia and positive environment."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts Asia to be at the core of growth in passenger travel around the world this year, both from routes within the region, and from those between Asia and the rest of the world.
The number of passengers flying within the Asia-Pacific region rose almost 20 per cent last year and are forecast to rise by a further seven per cent this year, significantly above the 5.7 per cent average growth due this year worldwide.
Some of this growth in traffic comes thanks to the boom in budget airlines, which have made air travel more affordable. These airlines do not tend to use travel magazines for their advertising, however, and look generally to the mass-market daily newspapers, where they can run short-term tactical promotions.
Looking to the future, all the major publishers are excited. Business Traveller is looking at launching new country editions within Asia, beginning with India.
"I'm bullish," says DestinAsian's Liem. "Having lived in Asia, you have to always expect the unexpected ... but the signals are very positive."
But the publishing sector that was repeatedly savaged by Sars, bird flu and terrorist bombings has apparently managed to escape from the tsunami unscathed.
Travel specialists are, in fact, predicting a bumper 2005 as ever-greater numbers of Asians take to the skies, and as new categories of advertisers look to their titles as a way to reach them. Publishers are even looking to new markets in which to expand.
"This year is just amazing," says Olivier Burlot, CEO and publisher of Adkom Media Group, which publishes Action Asia, Asia Spa (launched in 2003), Asia Spa India, Asia-Pacific Boating and China Boating, launched just over a year ago. "Compared to last year, we're up between 40 to 60 per cent (in terms of advertising revenue). It's a really big progression.
"The region is doing very, very well. Being niche magazines that suffered a lot in 2002 and 2003, the ones that survived grew in 2004 and are today getting the fruits of their hard work."
Peggy Teo, publisher of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific and the year-old Business Traveller China, says that as far as advertising is concerned, the tsunami barely registered a blip. Most of the destinations affected were predominantly leisure rather than business focused. "If it had been somewhere like Bangkok, it would have been different," she says.
But business travellers take holidays too, and it seems they've not been put off going to the countries affected by the tsunami.
"We've asked them whether they've stopped going to Phuket, and I think they've been among the first ones to bounce back, and quite a few have been back several times," says Teo.
A survey by online Asian travel portal Zuji in the first quarter of this year found that 64 per cent of site users planned to visit Phuket in the next 12 months, and only seven per cent feared repeat tsunamis. Colombo, in Sri Lanka, dropped out of the 50 most popular destinations following the tsunami, however, having ranked 10th and 16th in Q3 and Q4 of last year.
For some travel publishers, the tsunami even had an upside. Specialist travel website SmartTravelAsia.com doubled its visitor traffic after the tsunami to the current 70,000 per month. Revenue from advertising has more than doubled in the past year.
Publisher Vijay Verghese says the site switched from its monthly magazine format immediately following the disaster into a daily touchpoint with news-style coverage of relief efforts, resort damage, and recovery timelines. "Curiously, our tsunami page remains one of our most frequently visited on the site today," Verghese says. At bi-monthly magazine DestinAsian, publisher Ronald Liem says circulation is up 10 per cent this year compared to last year, and advertising revenue is also growing. "The tsunami was certainly a setback for some areas, like the resorts in Phuket, Sri Lanka and the Maldives," he says.
"We're seeing a lot of the resorts in Thailand spending more money with us to make noise, saying 'we're still open for business, we're not affected'."
While budgets for traditional travel magazine advertisers -- hotels, resorts, airlines and tourist boards -- are going up this year, there is increasing competition among media outlets courting them for a slice of it.
Pan-regional television has had notable success in this area, with news channels like CNN and BBC World attracting tourism boards in big numbers, along with the newly relaunched Discovery Travel & Living, AXN and National Geographic Channel.
In March, for instance, Discovery announced a tie-up with Malaysian Airlines in which the in-flight menu was at the heart of a 'Fly and Feast' competition, in which the winners get the chance to dine at the restaurants of the channel's celebrity chefs.
Publishers say there's enough spend to go around, and that television's gain isn't necessarily their loss.
"CNN did amazingly well in 2004," says Burlot. But he says several tourist boards which have signed with news channels have since been put off by the kind of news imagery that their ads get sandwiched between. Immediately after the tsunami, ads on international TV for several tourist boards -- some of them not even in Asia -- were taken off the air for reasons of taste.
"They said they got on CNN and it was great for their ego, but for their image, they're not so sure," Burlot says.
Not every advertiser can afford to produce high quality television commercials and to get them to air. Many of those that can are doing it as a complement to other media, rather than instead of it. And while the travel press may be losing a few of its traditional advertisers, it is attracting more money from others, and bringing in new categories.
Liem says the launch in December last year of more advertorial-style themed specials in DestinAsian is getting bookings from advertisers who don't ordinarily buy space in the magazine. Thai island resorts were the subject of an April special, and spa resorts around the region were the focus in June.
At Business Traveller, new categories this year include cosmetics brands, luxury accessories, and insurance. "Everywhere, hotels are spending more and they're targeting business travellers. They've realised that business travellers are much more stable when there's a crisis, and they're probably higher yield as well," says Teo.
Burlot says Rolex recently signed a two-year contract with Asia Spa, and that the boating magazines are also hooking new clients. "People who are into yachting of course have a watch and of course have a car," he says. Boating Asia-Pacific's advertisers include Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Aston Martin and Veuve Clicquot.
Online, it's a similar story. "Our advertising has grown in both depth and range," says Verghese. "As a lifestyle product catering for an affluent audience, our appeal is fairly broad-based.
"We started with national tourist offices -- the obvious choice for a prime destination marketing venue looking for big-budget spend -- and hotels, and have extended into airlines, spas, cameras and fashion. We're now looking at designer brands, watches and motorcars -- essentially, clients wishing to display their message in a live, out-of-the-box, multimedia and positive environment."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts Asia to be at the core of growth in passenger travel around the world this year, both from routes within the region, and from those between Asia and the rest of the world.
The number of passengers flying within the Asia-Pacific region rose almost 20 per cent last year and are forecast to rise by a further seven per cent this year, significantly above the 5.7 per cent average growth due this year worldwide.
Some of this growth in traffic comes thanks to the boom in budget airlines, which have made air travel more affordable. These airlines do not tend to use travel magazines for their advertising, however, and look generally to the mass-market daily newspapers, where they can run short-term tactical promotions.
Looking to the future, all the major publishers are excited. Business Traveller is looking at launching new country editions within Asia, beginning with India.
"I'm bullish," says DestinAsian's Liem. "Having lived in Asia, you have to always expect the unexpected ... but the signals are very positive."
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