New data from Criteo shows APAC travel demand remained resilient heading into the spring season, with hotel traffic rising and a late spike of nearly 30% year-on-year, even as OTA conversion rates softened 10% year-on-year in Q1.

The report found that while overall demand remains steady, travellers are becoming more selective about how and where they travel. Air traffic in the region fell 17% year-on-year in Q1 2026, as tensions in the Middle East prompted some travellers to reconsider long-haul plans. However, demand has largely shifted toward nearer destinations rather than declined.

In April, air bookings rose 1.0% for short-haul and 1.8% for medium-haul travel year-on-year, while long-haul bookings fell 2.8%, signalling a continued pivot to regional travel. Rather than a broad pullback, the data points to a recalibration in demand, creating opportunities for destination marketers and online travel agencies focused on shorter-haul routes.

Criteo also found that APAC travellers are spending more time researching and comparing options before booking. On average, travellers browse around 25 hotel listings before booking, while 66% cite reviews as a key decision factor. For travel brands in the region, the challenge has shifted from attracting interest to closing bookings.

This longer consideration period is also reflected in APAC’s extended booking season compared to other regions. Travel bookings outpaced retail sales week-on-week from early July through mid-October 2025, longer than in both EMEA and the Americas. The trend signals an extended activation window for marketers, supporting always-on campaign strategies over short, peak-driven bursts.

At the same time, travellers are increasingly turning to AI tools for planning, with APAC leading adoption. The report found that full-trip AI planning is most common in the region, with 45% of Japanese travellers and 47% of South Korean travellers using AI for end-to-end trip planning, versus a global average of 30%.

AI is also emerging as a key channel in the travel journey. In March 2026, ChatGPT accounted for a higher share of travel booking page visits than traditional search by 13 percentage points, while 72% of Criteo’s travel clients recorded at least one booking from ChatGPT referrals.

Criteo said the shift underscores the need to identify high-intent travellers rather than focus on volume. In partnership with the company, Skyscanner shifted its mid-funnel success metric from clicks to “Engaged Search Sessions”, defined as sessions where users did not bounce and completed at least one search for flights, hotels or car hire. Campaigns optimised on this metric in India and Canada delivered up to a 67% lift in ROI and an 80% increase in engaged search sessions.

As travellers navigate a more cost-conscious and complex environment, Criteo said brands that best convert will be those using real-time commerce data, AI-driven targeting, intent-based strategies and full-funnel activation to engage travellers throughout the booking journey.

“In Japan and South Korea, nearly half of travellers are now turning to AI in their trip planning, a strong signal for the rest of APAC. How a hotel, airline, or destination is surfaced and described by AI now matters as much as how it’s advertised,” said Szi Wei Lo, Executive Managing Director, APAC, Criteo. 

“Travel brands no longer win simply by outbidding competitors — they win by making it easier for travellers to understand, compare and choose their offering. The travel brands that pull ahead will be those treating content and product data as the driver of discovery, not a back-end concern.”

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Teal, whose career spans Ogilvy & Mather, DigitasLBi, Wunderman Thompson, and most recently VCCP Singapore, joins Koto as Growth Director for APAC at a time when international agencies are racing to secure a foothold in Southeast Asia’s swelling digital economy.

The appointment places a seasoned regional operator at the centre of Koto’s expansion plans. 

Teal has worked across branding, communications, marketing technology, and customer experience for some of Asia-Pacific’s largest companies, including Singtel, Standard Chartered, and Prudential.

“With over 4000 regional headquarters and over 30 unicorns, a digital economy worth $128 billion, Singapore isn’t just a market; it’s where the most ambitious companies make their brand decisions for Southeast Asia,” said Teal. 

He added, “These companies need a partner that can handle the full picture – brand, digital experience and campaigns – not just one piece of it. That’s exactly where we sit, and it’s a space very few studios here can confidently claim.”

Koto’s Singapore office becomes the company’s seventh globally and second in Asia-Pacific after Sydney, which launched in 2023. 

The firm said the new base would anchor its Southeast Asian operations following earlier work in the region with clients including Singapore-based fintech company Coda and Riot Games’ League of Legends franchise.

“Singapore is the natural next step,” said Damian Borchok, Managing Director APAC at Koto. “When we opened Sydney in 2023, Singapore was always part of the plan as it’s one of the most connected cities in ASEAN and the base from which regional ambitions are built. The brands here are increasingly thinking globally, and they need partners who can match that ambition.”

Founded in London in 2015 by James Greenfield, Caroline Matthews, and Jowey Roden, Koto has grown into a global network of more than 160 staff across Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, and Singapore. 

Its client roster includes Amazon, Google, JP Morgan, Lyft, Meta, Mars, Microsoft, Netflix, Tripadvisor, and WhatsApp.

“Koto has always wanted to work with the world’s best brands in the world’s best cities,” said Greenfield, the company’s chief executive. “Singapore has long been one of those cities for us, so opening here is a big moment. Working with brands like Coda and Riot Games showed us there’s a real energy and ambition here that feels very aligned with Koto. Bringing Mark on board is an important step in building Koto’s long-term presence in the region.”

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The new regional leadership structure is aimed at providing more integrated support to clients across markets and disciplines. It follows OPR’s recent realignment of its global agency brands under a simplified portfolio approach.

The model introduces regional and country leadership across selected markets outside the US and UK, with the goal of establishing a clearer governance framework and enabling more coordinated client delivery across its agency portfolio, which includes Golin, Ketchum, Weber Shandwick, and FleishmanHillard.

Effective July 1, Wong, Taggart, and Power will report to OPR CEO Chris Foster. They will oversee all OPR agency brands within their respective regions, working with local leadership and supported by global agency heads.

OPR said the US and UK will continue to operate under their existing agency models.

“OPR is strengthening our market presence by bringing the OPR network together in a more coordinated and effective way,” said Foster. “Our agency brands each bring a unique value proposition and a commitment to client service excellence. By showing up as a cohesive, integrated partner, we preserve those distinctive capabilities while ensuring we deliver the seamless experience our clients expect.” 

The new structure will be rolled out in phases, with further country-level appointments expected in the coming months.

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Marketers are doing exactly what they have been told to do, and doing it well. They are hitting the quarter, proving the channel, cutting the slack, defending the spreadsheet. By every measure their CFOs were trained to care about, they are succeeding. And yet, when the CMO Survey looked at where marketing money was actually flowing in 2024, it found that almost 70% of budgets had been redirected to short-term performance tactics, up from 60% the year before – even though the same group of marketers said the optimal balance was a 50:50 split between brand-building and performance. We know better, but we are doing it anyway.

So why does it feel like the brand is disappearing?

None of this is irrational when you look at what marketers across APAC have been handed in 2026. AI is rewriting the rules of who reaches whom, which means every existing playbook is being rebuilt mid-flight. Regional budgets are tighter than they have been in a decade, partly because the global parent had its own budget cut. Geopolitics is making cross-border supply, pricing, and channel mix harder to predict than at any point since the pandemic. And on top of all of it, the planning horizon is no longer the year – for most marketers I speak with across the region, it is the next earnings call.

Faced with that combination, the rational response is to do what shows up in this quarter’s report. You spend on what you can measure, attribute, and put in front of the board without flinching, you move money toward the channel that closed the quarter last time, and you quietly let the slower work slip — the brand-building, the long-arc storytelling and the platforms that compound. 

However, postponing brand work for a quarter compounds the costs of not building the brand, leaving many CMOs paying “hidden interest” on a balance most  do not even know they are carrying. I call this Brand Debt.

The accounting is not theoretical. Kantar’s BrandZ analysis tracking brand value over a three-year period found that found that brands maintaining equity investment grew brand value by 72%, while those that deprioritised brand-building grew by only 20%. That gap is the interest rate on the debt, and it accrues whether the dashboard is showing it or not.

Like any other debt, you do not see it until you have to. It compounds quietly while you are busy hitting the targets that earned you the right to keep postponing it, and at some point, usually three to four years out, it comes due — in pricing power that has thinned, in CAC that no longer responds to optimisation, in distinctive assets your competitors are now using better than you, and in a brand the next CMO inherits that has stopped meaning anything specific to anyone.

The brands that survive 2026, by every quarter-on-quarter measure that defines survival in 2026, are often the ones building the largest Brand Debt balances. They look healthy on the surface, sometimes for years, and by the time the debt comes due, the conditions that made the debt rational will have changed, the team that made the trade will have moved on, and the cost of repayment will be a multi-year rebuild paid for by someone who was never in the room when the original decision was made.

This is an accounting problem disguised as a marketing one.

So what gets borrowed against, exactly?

The first thing is distinctiveness. Every quarter spent on “what works” tends to converge a brand on the same channels, formats, and creative grammar as everyone else in the category, until by year three the category reads like one paragraph in slightly different fonts, and the descriptions of competing brands in the latest landscape reports could be swapped without anyone noticing.

The second thing is pricing latitude. Brands that have stopped investing in meaningful distinctiveness end up competing on what is comparable, which is to say price, promo, convenience, speed of delivery and so on. While each individual promotion looks like it works, the aggregate effect – accumulated quarter by quarter –  is a brand that has trained its customers to wait for the next discount.

The third thing, and this is the one most CFOs miss, is recoverability. A brand carrying low Brand Debt can recover quickly when conditions improve because the underlying assets are still there, while a brand that has been dismantled quarter by quarter has nothing to recover with. When budgets eventually loosen in 2028 or 2029, the rebuild starts from a much lower base than the original, and the cost of getting back is significantly more than the cost of having stayed.

So what does a CMO in emerging markets such as Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand actually do, in the conditions we are in, with the budgets we have?

Three moves are working for the brands that are quietly servicing their Brand Debt while still hitting their numbers.

The first is to audit the next quarterly plan for inheritance. How much of what is in there exists only because last quarter ended, and how much of it is genuine continuation of a longer arc? If the honest answer is that most of it is inherited from the previous cycle, that is Brand Debt accumulating in real time, regardless of how the campaigns are performing in isolation.

The second is to carve out a small, fixed percentage of every quarter’s plan — somewhere between 10 and 15 percent – for work whose payback horizon is longer than the quarter itself. Forget the old 60/40 brand-versus-performance argument from 2019. What we are talking about here is a deliberately small, deliberately protected line that buys you optionality in 2030, whether that is a long-arc creative platform, a codified brand asset, an owned channel, or any infrastructure you keep building rather than rent.

The third is to change what gets reported up. Most APAC marketing dashboards report what happened in the recent quarter and very few report what compounded over the longer horizon. A single line in the monthly review — “this quarter, we built or strengthened X, which will still be working three years from now” — changes the conversation more than any deck or dashboard, because it teaches the rest of the business that brand-building leaves a strong trace, and that trace is a measurable asset.

The math has been clear for some time: WARC’s Multiplier Effect 2025 reports 90% higher ROI for brands that balance long-term brand-building with performance marketing, versus a 40% ROI cut for those who over-rely on performance. Paying down Brand Debt is the higher-yield investment, even if it does not show up on the dashboard until later.

The most expensive marketing strategy in APAC right now is the one that perfectly hits its quarter while quietly running up a Brand Debt that no one is reading – one that even makes overspending cheaper by comparison.

The brands that survive 2030 will be the ones that, in 2026, paid down their debt diligently.

This thought leadership piece is written by Dennis Kam, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of JUNO.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2026, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2026 and beyond.

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Ling, a decade-long veteran of branded content in APAC, has worked with Hilton, Marina Bay Sands, SP Group, and Gardens by the Bay, producing campaigns including Chocolate Finance’s Make Life Richer and ONE Championship’s The Apprentice social series. 

He will lead efforts to turn storytelling into measurable business outcomes, using performance data to refine formats and scale campaigns across Viddsee’s multi-format ecosystem, which has already amassed more than 3 billion views globally.

Yue, formerly of Dentsu, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO, Craft Worldwide, and Distillery, will strengthen operational workflows, improve coordination across teams, and manage delivery pipelines for Viddsee’s growing slate of IP, including TV series, microdramas, and feature films such as Siti Vampire.

“With data and AI embedded into every workflow, we want every story to reach its full potential,” said Ho Jia Jian, founder and CEO.

Together, Ling and Yue are expected to fuse creative storytelling with operational discipline, positioning Viddsee as a next-generation studio capable of both cultural influence and commercial impact. 

The appointments also build on Viddsee’s push last year to expand its original IP and branded content offerings across Southeast Asia, as the company sharpened its focus on data-led storytelling and regional distribution.

Viddsee now presents itself as a hub for creators and brands alike, blending content creation, distribution, and technology to deliver stories that resonate at scale across Asia.

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About 30% of the APAC population now uses AI several times a week—higher than in the US (26%) and Europe (27%). However, this widespread adoption has also coincided with growing scepticism toward AI-generated content. Only 5% of shoppers in the region say they fully trust brand content created by AI, compared with 12% in the US and 16% in Europe.

The findings also point to growing confusion around AI-generated material. According to the report, 63% of shoppers in APAC say they have previously mistaken human-written content for AI.

The report notes that the proliferation of so-called “AI slop”—low-quality, mass-produced automated content—is emerging as a significant threat to brand trust as generative AI tools become more widely used in marketing and communications.

However, despite growing scepticism, AI is increasingly influencing purchase decisions. The report found that 78% of shoppers in APAC have used AI tools to compare brands or seek product recommendations. The trend is particularly evident in the electronics category, cited by 66% of respondents, while men were 35% more likely than women to have purchased a product recommended by an AI tool.

Marcus Rossato, head of marketing for APJ at Klaviyo, said, “The honeymoon phase with AI is officially over for shoppers across Asia Pacific. Although consumers in the region lead the world in AI adoption, they have one of the highest bars for authenticity. For younger audiences and daily users, generic AI content isn’t just ineffective — it actively damages brand equity.

“What our data shows is that brands must move beyond using AI for mere efficiency and toward using it for emotion. The opportunity for brands in 2026 is not to scale content faster but to scale usefulness. In a world of automated noise, the brands that maintain a human connection will be the ones that survive the slop era,” he added. 

The findings come as Singapore continues to prioritise AI development. Under the country’s 2026 budget, the government has committed more than S$1b towards AI infrastructure, talent development, and adoption through 2030, alongside the establishment of a National AI Council to guide strategy. 

The investment comes amid rising public concern around deepfakes and large-scale content farms, highlighting the balance policymakers face between accelerating AI adoption and ensuring safeguards that protect public trust.

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The collaboration will roll out across 12 markets in the region, with Starbucks incorporating elements from the Harry Potter universe into its product offerings and store experience.

As part of the campaign, Starbucks will introduce the Honeydukes Bursting Bonbons Series, a trio of themed beverages inspired by Honeydukes, the fictional wizarding sweet shop featured in the Harry Potter series.

In addition to beverages, Starbucks is also releasing a Harry Potter collection featuring more than 20 drinkware and lifestyle accessories inspired by the franchise, including colour-changing mugs and Bearista keychains styled in Hogwarts-inspired robes.

“Bringing Harry Potter into Starbucks® coffeehouses across Asia Pacific reflects a shared belief in imagination and human connection. Harry Potter has long inspired us to celebrate friendship, courage, and community — the same spirit we see every day in our coffeehouses as moments of joy and connection come to life,” said Nancy Lo, vice president of product and marketing at Starbucks Asia Pacific.

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Wisadkosin brings over 20 years of senior leadership experience in the automotive and consumer sectors. She was most recently president of ASEAN Markets and Asia Pacific Distributor Markets at Ford, where she led expansion across multiple countries and achieved sustained growth in competitive markets in the region.

“I am honored to join Hyundai Motor Asia Pacific and excited to work with teams across ASEAN. Together, we will build stronger regional alignment, accelerate transformation, and deliver long-term value for our customers and partners,” said Wisadkosin.

Don Romano, president of HMAP, said, “Vickie’s regional expertise, leadership capability, and deep understanding of ASEAN markets make her exceptionally well-suited to lead Hyundai’s next phase of growth in the region. Her appointment also reflects our commitment to strengthening global female leadership within Hyundai.”

Hyundai noted that Wisadkosin’s appointment supports the company’s efforts to bolster integration, agility, and future-readiness across ASEAN, positioning the company for long-term growth and competitiveness in the region.

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Under the new structure, Gareth Mulryan, CEO of Publicis Groupe Japan, takes on an expanded role as CEO of Publicis Groupe JSK. He will work closely with Nicole Roe, CEO of Publicis Groupe South Korea. Mulryan also joins the Publicis Groupe Asia-Pacific executive committee and continues to report to Jane Lin-Baden, CEO, Asia-Pacific, Publicis Groupe.

Commenting on the announcement, Mulryan said, “Our clients increasingly operate seamlessly across Japan and South Korea and expect the same from their agency partners. By working more closely as one region, we can combine Japan’s experience in transformation, data and connected media with South Korea’s world-class creativity and cultural influence to drive even stronger outcomes for clients.”

The two markets together account for a combined population of around 175 million and more than US$70 billion in advertising spend, making them one of the largest advertising regions globally. Both are also regarded as influential cultural exporters in Asia and beyond.

The company said the new sub-region responds to increasing demand from multinational clients seeking more integrated and consistent support across Japan and South Korea, while preserving the distinct market strengths of each country. The structure is designed to enhance collaboration and shared capabilities across media, creative, data and technology disciplines, supported by the group’s connected platform and “Power of One” model.

Jane Lin-Baden, CEO, Asia-Pacific at Publicis Groupe, commented, “Japan and South Korea are critically important markets for our global clients and healthcare brands. Both offices are known for strong creative and design capabilities. Both CEOs have achieved very strong business growth in Japan and South Korea in the past few years despite challenging market conditions. By creating the JSK sub-region, we are further strengthening our ability to deliver connected, future-ready solutions at scale.

She added, “Gareth brings deep international experience after working in Europe, Southeast Asia, China and Japan and has a proven track record in partnering with multinational brands. This structure positions us strongly for the next phase of growth in the JSK sub-region.”

With the addition of Japan–South Korea, Publicis Groupe Asia-Pacific now comprises five sub-regions: Greater China, Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand, South Asia, and Japan–South Korea.

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The report highlights strong international travel intent, rising experience-led spending, and a shift toward multi-destination journeys, led by travellers in the Asia Pacific region.

According to the study, 88% of global travellers plan to increase or maintain their travel budgets this year. Travel intent also remains high, with nine in 10 planning an international trip in 2026. Of these, 61% expect to travel in the first half of the year, up from 50% last year.

Millennial and Gen Z travellers are driving much of this growth. They are not only spending more on travel but also exploring both domestic and international destinations, reshaping how and where they travel.

The report shows a clear shift in spending priorities. Faced with rising costs, travellers are cutting back on shopping and material purchases rather than activities and experiences—a trend particularly pronounced in APAC. These travellers are nearly twice as likely as their European and U.S. counterparts to increase spending on experiences, signalling the region’s role as a leading driver of experience-led travel.

Travel patterns are also changing. Rather than choosing between familiar and new destinations, many travellers are doing both in the same trip. Two-thirds plan multi-destination journeys, moving away from single-stop itineraries. Major cities are increasingly seen as gateways rather than end goals, allowing travellers to extend their trips to less-explored locales.

APAC Gen Z travellers are at the forefront of this trend, favouring fast-paced, packed itineraries and actively seeking lesser-known destinations. While Japan remains a top consideration globally, interest is spreading to secondary cities such as Yokohama, Hiroshima, and Nagoya—locations that offer more space, cultural depth, and distinctive local experiences.

Across markets, travellers cite authentic experiences (42%), hidden gems (39%), and affordability (37%) as key reasons for exploring less-popular destinations. Discovery is now driven not just by novelty, but also by values, access, and depth. This pattern extends beyond Asia, with emerging destinations gaining traction in Australia (Cairns, Hobart), Europe (Baix Llobregat, Tromsø), and the Middle East (Sharjah, Hurghada).

Social media and artificial intelligence (AI) are shaping how travellers discover and plan trips. Social platforms influence 80% of global travellers’ booking decisions and serve as trust-builders, while AI—used by 91% of travellers—helps with research, translation, itinerary planning, and budget management. Together, they create a loop where social content sparks interest and AI applies practical filters before travel decisions are finalised, signalling a shift from viral inspiration to validated discovery.

According to the report, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of more intentional and distributed travel. For the industry, this marks a significant shift: discovery is no longer optional but a central driver redefining where, how, and why people travel.

Marcus Yong, vice president of global marketing at Klook, said, “Travel has remained resilient despite the rising cost of living. What we are witnessing is a fundamental shift in how travellers evaluate value. Instead of cutting back, they are spending smarter, prioritising richer experiences, flexible itineraries, and deeper discovery. They seek experiential value that goes far beyond simply ticking destinations off a checklist.”

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