Many of the people spending in this market are looking for career advancement and job opportunitiy and getting some knowledge under their belts so they’re better prepared for the job market. And also because they aspire to international experiences, international jobs. A maturing of the youth travel market towards education is probably the single most important change.

“I think we underestimate how completely mobile we’re going to be in the coming years”

The PIE: Any other changes you foresee happening?

PdJ: The sophistication of the consumer has grown tremendously over the last few decades. And here’s another tremendous change we shouldn’t underestimate, everything in certainly the next five years, our whole lives, will revolve around this rectangular box [indicates smartphone] that we all carry. I think we underestimate how completely mobile we’re going to be in the coming years and how reliant we’ll become not only for information and communication, but also for the products and services we purchase via our mobile device.

The PIE: In terms of the outbound market in Asia, you must have seen that really evolve.

PdJ: I recall just being in Amsterdam airport as a young man and seeing first-time Japanese travellers looking with some trepidation around and following a group leader with a flag. And we were worried about that. We thought – are we ready for those customers? Do we want those customers?

“The travel appetite has really evolved very rapidly and it will be no different with the Chinese traveller or the Brazilian traveller”

But today you see Japanese backpackers in a Brussels youth hostel hooking up with a Spanish backpacker and going down to France together. So the travel appetite in terms of sophistication and maturity has really evolved very rapidly and I believe it will be no different with the Chinese traveller or the Brazillian traveller or the Indian traveller.

The PIE: And in terms of spending power…

PdJ: I’ve witnessed the development of Macao [as a Las Vegas-style destination] within my PATA CEO position. And I’ve seen how immense the development has been. How stunned even your most optimistic Vegas operators were by the success, popularity and the spend. Now, Macao significantly outspends Vegas in total volume and per customer volume. It’s a multiple of what they spend in Vegas. And that’s over a matter of only a few years – less than a decade. That’s six or seven years old and Vegas has been around for more than half a century. So I just know that there is so much going to happen in our world.

And I say this coming from a context where – and this my personal view – the 19th century was the European century, the 20th was the American century, and the 21st century is the Asian century. Actually, I believe we’re in the Asian millennium. Asia will be so dominant, just by the sheer demographics and economics of it. That the sooner many of us get familiar with it, recognise, accept and embrace it and begin to relate to it pro-actively, the better off all of us will be.