Sorry, I didn't read the whole thread, but my take on this is the following:
We are coming out of a recession where most of us have been faced with large restraints on our personal budgets. When this happens, it doesn mean that people want less, their "wants / needs" still stay the same, but they will then start to look at other ways to fulfill their needs.
Where people normally would've been content with forking out money for products from local suppliers without shopping around, they have now started looking around for the cheapest product / service. People's need for instant gratification would mean that they would look around locally first BEFORE looking at overseas channels, but should the overseas channels be way cheaper than local suppliers, thats when you will get what is happening at the moment.
People want choice of products and services at the best price, and funny enough, people WANT to exercise that right locally! But if they feel that they are getting ripped off by local suppliers, they will go the international route (should it work out way cheaper).
In essence, in difficult times, price is THE most important factor, while when times are better, the full experience draws more attention. The idea of looking at products / services from a customer's point of view, still hold huge value - doesn't matter which industry you are in.
