Asia dominates Asia/Pacific tourism boom

Preliminary results released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today showed that international visitor arrivals into Asia/Pacific destinations grew by six per cent year-on-year in June 2011.

The positive momentum of the previous months held strong for Southeast Asia, which led the region with 15.5 per cent growth during the month of June. The rebound in arrivals to Thailand (+54 per cent) positively impacted this overall result, strongly supported by the other reporting destinations in this sub-region all of which enjoyed double-digit growth. This in turn was supported by strong travel demand within ASEAN and an increase in arrivals from China.

International arrivals growth to South Asia was a robust 12 per cent in June, boosted by double-digit increases in inbound numbers to Nepal (+38 per cent), the Maldives (+27 per cent) and Sri Lanka (+20 per cent). India maintained the same pace of growth seen in the previous month at seven per cent. European arrivals are amongst the main contributors to this growth.

Northeast Asia saw an improvement after posting slow growth of 0.6 per cent in May, with a 3.7 per cent increase in arrivals for June 2011. This growth, however, was very unevenly distributed among destinations in the sub-region. Tourism demand to Japan continued to recover, reducing losses in inbound arrivals from -63 per cent in April to -50 per cent in May and -36 per cent in June. Chinese Taipei (-2 per cent) and China (+1 per cent) registered weak results while Hong Kong SAR (+16 per cent), Macau SAR (+15 per cent) and Korea (ROK) (+11 per cent) enjoyed buoyant growth for the month, supported by the key origin market of China.

Even though the percentage growth rate may be relatively weaker than for other sub-regions, the sheer volume of arrivals to Northeast Asia means that 3.7 per cent growth directly translates into more than 600,000 additional arrivals for the month.

International Arrivals to the Pacific recorded an aggregate decline of four per cent in June. The main destinations of Australia (-4 per cent) and New Zealand (-10 per cent) showed significant decreases compared to the corresponding period last year. This downturn was caused - in part at least - by the ash cloud disruption to air travel from the Chilean volcano together with the continued effects of the earthquake in Christchurch. Nevertheless, some Pacific Island nations still managed to show positive growth, especially Palau (+63 per cent), Vanuatu (+27 per cent), Tahiti (+19 per cent), Papua New Guinea (+16 per cent), New Caledonia (+11 per cent) and Cook Island (+8 per cent).

Source - travelbizmonitor