James Ruggia from TravelPulse has completed has 2015 crystal ball gazing. His first of 7 Travel Trends caught our eye…
ASEAN Economic Community Implementation.
The coming of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community (AEC) will be, to my thinking, the most significant story of the year. Much as the European Union brought a group of competitive, sometimes warring, nations to see themselves as important partners in a much larger world, so has ASEAN made the 600 million people of Southeast Asia see their common interests.
The combined GDP of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is roughly, give or take $10 billion, $2.1 trillion. The region’s growing middle class represents a new and very rich vein of travel consumers.The AEC comes with the ASEAN Single Air Market (ASAM) and both are scheduled for implementation in 2015. If it can overcome some very formidable obstacles, ASAM will have a significant impact.
