Loading

Recovery momentum continues for Asia Pacific travel & tourism

Direct News Source

Preliminary figures from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) show that the numbers of international visitors to the Asia Pacific region* grew by three percent year-on-year in November 2009.

All the sub-regions, with the exception of the Americas, recorded growth in arrivals for the month. Southeast Asia led the Asia Pacific region's recovery with a 15 percent increase in arrivals, boosted by eleven percent growth to Malaysia and strong rebounds in Singapore (+8 percent), Thailand (+26 percent) and Vietnam (+37 percent).

In Northeast Asia, arrivals to China (PRC) fell by two percent but Chinese Taipei (+25 percent), Korea (ROK) (+11 percent), Hong Kong SAR (+8 percent), Macau SAR (+3 percent) and Japan (+2 percent) all reported growth. Significantly, the two percent growth registered by Japan was the first since July 2008. Overall, growth in international arrivals to Northeast Asia averaged two percent for the month.

In South Asia, the Maldives (+7 percent), Nepal (+8 percent) and Sri Lanka (+20 percent) all reported strong growth. But arrivals to India fell by one percent, limiting the sub-region's overall arrivals growth to just two percent in November.

The Pacific recorded a modest one percent growth for the month on sluggish (but positive) growth in arrivals to Australia (+3 percent), New Zealand (+0.3 percent) and Guam (+2 percent); the US state of Hawaii however, recorded a decline of one percent over the same period.

The Americas also saw an aggregate decline for the month with a three percent drop in arrivals driven in part by an eleven percent drop in inbound numbers to Canada.

Kris Lim, Director of PATA's Strategic Intelligence Centre (SIC), says, "We are regaining some of the lost ground as travel demand continues to pick up in the last few months of 2009. The year-to-date rate of decline in international visitor arrivals to the region has now eased to a loss of just three percent over the January-to-November period. Based on the latest available results for December 2009 the recovery momentum in arrivals remains strong for many destinations in the region. This is very encouraging and we may look with greater confidence to the year ahead."