Synovate PAX reveals in-flight readership and entertainment habits of affluent Asian travellers

HONG KONG — Leading global research company Synovate, today released results from its first Synovate PAX in-flight survey in Asia, revealing healthy readership rates for seven leading in-flight magazines across five major Asian markets and providing comprehensive data on in-flight consumer behaviour.

Synovate PAX covers the media consumption, product and service ownership, purchase intention, lifestyle and attitudes of affluent Asians and now also examines the in-flight magazine readership, entertainment habits and duty free shopping behaviour of affluent Asian travellers.

Synovate Director Media Research Asia Pacific, Craig Harvey, said the new results provided marketers, media buyers, planners and advertisers with an accurate measure of the power of in-flight magazines and entertainment, as well as insights into the Asian in-flight audience.

“While the industry has always assumed the captive power of in-flight magazines, Synovate PAX in-flight data now provides solid, credible information to enable agencies and marketers to plan against such titles more efficiently,” he said.

The survey shows healthy readership rates for in-flight magazines across the five markets covered, with more than 20% of respondents who have travelled at least once in the past year having read one or more in-flight magazines in the previous month, and one quarter of business travellers (26.6%) having read at least one of the titles measured in the past month.

Results are even stronger among frequent fliers, with readership at 28.5% for those who have travelled for either business or leisure at least three times or more in the past year and 38% for those who have travelled at least six times or more in the past 12 months.

“Synovate PAX now provides a rich profile of Asia’s affluent travellers, showing that readers of in-flight magazines own more luxury goods and have higher ownership rates for laptops and mobile phones with internet access than those travellers who don’t read such publications,” Mr Harvey said.

“With information on in-flight entertainment habits and duty free purchases also included, Synovate PAX provides savvy marketers with the knowledge they need to plan targeted, integrated in-flight marketing campaigns in Asia.”



In-flight magazines

Covering seven in-flight magazine titles including Discovery, Dynasty, Going Places, Gulf Air, Krisworld, Sawasdee and Silkroad across the markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Bangkok, Synovate PAX revealed strong in-flight magazine readership among elite Asian travellers. Results include:

21.5% of all respondents across the five Asian markets surveyed who have travelled at least once in the past year have read one or more of the surveyed titles in the past month
Business travellers are most likely to read in-flight magazines, with 26.6% of those who have travelled for business at least once in the past year having read one or more of the publications in the past month
26.1% of business travellers flying in economy class have read one of the in-flight magazines measured in the past month
28.8% of business travellers flying in business class have read one of the in-flight magazines measured in the past month
Male travellers are more likely to read in-flight magazines than females travellers, with 24% of males who have travelled at least once in the past year having read one or more of the in-flight titles in the past month


In-flight entertainment

Travellers in ten Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, India and Australia were asked which in-flight entertainment options they use on their average trip.

More than two thirds of travellers, or 69.4% of respondents, watch an in-flight movie or film on an average trip, with this form of entertainment slightly more popular among business travellers (71.6%)
News is also a popular form of in-flight entertainment, with 45.5% of business travellers watching in-flight news on an average trip
40.4% of travellers listen to in-flight audio channels on an average flight


Duty free shopping

Travellers in ten Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, India and Australia were asked about their duty free purchases in the past twelve months.

69% of travellers across all ten markets had purchased a product from a duty free store in the last year
Alcohol is the most popular duty free purchase, with 48.2% of duty free shoppers having bought some type of alcohol from a duty free store in the past year
Business travellers are more likely to purchase alcohol than leisure travellers, with 51.8% having purchased duty free alcohol in the past year
Cosmetics was the second most popular duty free purchase, with 29.2% of duty free shoppers having purchased cosmetics from a duty free store in the past year, followed by perfumes (25.5%) and tobacco (23.8%)
Indians are the most frequent purchasers of duty free alcohol with 77.7% of Indian duty free shoppers having purchased duty free alcohol in the past year, while Taiwanese are the largest buyers of duty free tobacco (43.9%)