ACCOMMODATION GRABS BIG SLICE OF TRAVEL BUDGET

SINGAPORE, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Travellers spent nearly a third of their
budget on a good night's sleep, or accommodation, according to the Visa and
Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) survey.

The survey found that the average holiday budget, excluding airfare,
comprised accommodation (30 percent), food and beverages (22 percent), airport
duty-free stores (10 percent), clothing and accessories (nine percent) and cash
withdrawals from automated teller machines (eight percent).

The remainder was spent on miscellaneous items including arts d crafts,
sports apparel, electronic and electrical goods, leather goods and bags,
according to the survey which intended to find out travellers' preferences
in 2009 and beyond.

Visa country manager for Singapore/Brunei and Pata board director, Meranda
Chan, said "regardless of a person's holiday budget, essential items such
as a bed to sleep in and trying the local cuisine make up the main expenses when
travelling abroad".

She said Asia-Pacific offered a wide range of accommodation to cater to all
types of travellers, and with the trend for old buildings being converted into
boutique hotels and new resorts being built, the choices were even greater.

In the survey about 5,500 respondents from 11 key Asia-Pacific travel source
markets -- Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan,
Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US -- were asked about their past and future
travel plans.

The survey also found that the respondents spent an average of US$2,302
(US$1=RM3.59) on their last international holiday, excluding airline tickets.

The survey revealed that Australians were big holiday spenders with an
average price tag of US$4,390, almost twice the amount of the survey average,
and 21 percent of them spent between US$5,000 and US$10,000 on their last trip.

The second highest holiday spenders were from India spending US$3,071 on
their last holiday followed by Chinese travellers who spent US$2,659.

Of all the respondents, the Japanese spent the most of their budget on
accommodation (36 percent) mainly in three-star hotels followed by Americans (35
percent) who preferred four- and five-star accommodation.

According to Pata's Asia-Pacific Tourism Forecasts 2009-2011, Asia was
expected to welcome over 450 million international travellers by 2011.
-- BERNAMA