To stay in the game businesses need to change tactics according to Etihad Airways chief executive James Hogan, who explained that growing travel industries in Asia and the Middle East have ushered in a global shift.

Speaking at the inaugural Australia-Gulf Lecture in Sydney last week, Mr Hogan said Etihad’s growth would be linked to their adjusted focus on un-serviced routes in China and regional India.

“The airlines – indeed businesses – that will survive and prosper in the face of seismic global change are those which reinvent themselves with this change in mind,” he said.

The airline’s boss added that while it may have taken but Asia has reached a new level of importance in tourism and the Arabian Gulf would be a “consequential player in this new Asian paradigm”.

“From the fall of President Marcos in 1986 to the fall of Suharto during the Asian Financial Crisis, and beyond, Southeast Asia has undergone two decades of dynamic change,” Mr Hogan said in his speech.

“It has taken a long time.

“And now we speak of Asia as the new centre of the world.