2025 has been a remarkable year of growth for travel, with Asia Pacific emerging as the leading engine of global travel growth. Travellers’ expectations continue to evolve – moving beyond checklists to seek experiences that inspire, foster meaningful connection, and deliver personal fulfilment.
Travel is a powerful enabler for consumers to access these experiences. It positively influences consumer happiness, and helps consumers to bridge the gap between the world they live in and their aspirations.
With travel accounting for almost a third of Asia Pacific consumers’ annual card expenditure, brands have a unique opportunity to harness its potential to foster deeper engagement with their customers, differentiate from competition, and deliver measurable business impact.
At this recent fireside chat with Katrina Nicholas, Managing Editor of Southeast Asia at Bloomberg LP, Todd Handcock, Chief Commercial Officer and Asia Pacific Executive Chair at Collinson International, shared insights on the impact travel has on happiness and how brands can cultivate lifetime customer value today.
“Brands in the financial, insurance and travel sectors are looking for acquisition, loyalty and engagement. Today, this involves having a programme that delivers on those by being much more focused on the personalisation of exciting, unique experiences for the different demographics that the brands are working with.”
Key highlights of the fireside chat include:
Asia Pacific is the leading engine of global travel growth, with Southeast Asia emerging as a travel powerhouse in the region – 7 of the world’s top 10 busiest international airline routes are in Asia Pacific, with 2 in Southeast Asia.
Collinson International’s 2025 Asia Pacific Consumer Happiness Report highlights that 8 in 10 consumers in Asia Pacific rely on brands for transformative, life-enriching experiences with Millennials (89%) and Gen Z (86%) particularly reliant on brand rewards for unique and exclusive experiences.
Beyond travel, major financial services brands are investing in travel services and related rewards and benefits. Enabling exclusive access to aspirational experiences in emerging travel categories such as sports, music and wellness enables brands to align with consumers’ priorities and strengthens brand relevance among existing and new customers.
