Asian Airports Delight Their Customers

Six of the top 10 airports in the world are Asian - according to Skytrax's study using 8.6m passengers reviewing 196 airports worldwide. These are 1. Incheon (Seoul) 2. Hong Kong 3. Singapore Changi 4. Zurich 5. Munich 6. Kansai 7. Kuala Lumpur 8. Amsterdam 9. Centrair Nagoya 10. Auckland.

Incheon International Airport, Seoul, South Korea

Comments from a user on the Economist's website discussing the top 10 airports here is particularly good:

"If you look at the airports listed in the top ten and analyze their success, you will find that in most cases they are planned to provide convenience for the travelling public and that making a buck is not their raison d'etre."

See details on here.

See my post on the world's best airlines here.

Social Media Trend Alert

Gulliver of the Economist provides insights for the world travelers. In a recent article "Trusting the people" here, he states the following regarding online sites providing reviews of travel services:

"...the small storm stirred up by the news that Royal Caribbean cruises had contacted people who had repeatedly put up positive reviews about them—mainly on the CruiseCritic site (owned by Tripadvisor)—and offered them rewards in return for more positive online coverage."

Gulliver concludes:

"As a result Gulliver finds himself increasingly drifting away from such sites in favour of single-source guides, such as Alastair Sawday or Mr and Mrs Smith. It's not that the accumulated wisdom of online reviewers is to be sniffed at; more that the crowd's objectivity is not always guaranteed."

I believe this is the new social media trend that has been prevelant and now going mainstream.

For further reading, please see my blogs, "Debunking "Wisdom of Crowds" Myth - Two Examples" here, "Crowds, Their Self Management - Empirical Data" here and "Mind-Meshes" here.

Country Branding

I just read the "Country Brand Index 2008: Insights, Findings & Country Rankings" - download PDF here, from the FutureBrand folks. I found their study great for taking on such a challenge - I found their methodology exceptional in taking complex topics as culture, environment, destination, etc. and rinsing them through the qualitative parts such as emotions, perceptions, etc.

FutureBrand's Country Brand Platform - Sec 1:1 of the report

(click for a larger view)

The CBI-08 report has snippets of treats for the visualization of data and information - Tufte would be proud.

At the same time I felt a touch of bias simply due to the heavily Western panel of experts (see page 14 & 15 in the report) and the same for the sources (see page 61).

Even though an article on the above report in the Economist states:

"As someone with a non-marketing background, I find the notion of branding an entire country rather reductive. You end up talking in such broad terms (viz. the view of Australia in the first paragraph) that the themes tend towards the stereotypical or even the meaningless."

I believe the buzz, or marketing hype associated with brands does impact consumer decisions that are meaningful to economic development. An example not to be overlooked is UAE, with approximately 12% or less original Emirati populace, massive investment in second and vacation homes from Europeans, South Asians, Australians and South East Asians (Singapore, Honk Kong), it is but one example of what a brand can do.

Two more points from the report that I found insightful:

(1) "Countries in Momentum" (see page 26) provides a clear indication of the developing countries (with two exceptions from developed countries) gaining momentum under the headings of Emerging, In Vogue and Rising while the developed countries with two exceptions falling under the headings of Declining and Maintaining. I believe this provides a glimpse of the future of these countries for the 21st century.

(2) "Country Branded Products" (see page 32) shows the reinforcement received by product brands due to their country's brand. A realization must not be lost here that country brands can cause havoc on product brands - see the Middle East boycott of Arla as a recent example here.

In summary, I found the report with great mechanics while emphasizing and leveraging the positive. For an astute mind, this report offers great data to digest. I caution against the overly optimistic tone of some of the conclusions (see (2) above). Reality on the ground can be a surprise.