According to PATA the demand growth was, to a certain degree, impacted by the shift of the Lunar New Year, from the middle of the month in 2010, to the first week of the month this year.

South Asia continued to have the strongest growth in arrivals with a gain of 15%. India and Sri Lanka, which hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, recorded the fastest arrivals growth of 15% for the month. Maldives and Nepal also grew strongly at 13% and 12% respectively.

Travel demand to Southeast Asia remained robust with the majority of the destinations recording double-digit gains in arrivals, led by Myanmar (29%), Vietnam (22%) and Cambodia (22%),

Growth in Northeast Asia was, however, much slower at 3%, despite having 1.4-million more visitors. Chinese Taipei led the pack with an impressive at 17% increase. But growth for other destinations were modest  – China, Hong Kong and Japan 2%; Macau 5%.

International arrivals to the Pacific rose 4% in February. Australia declined (–0.2%) and New Zealand was flat (0.2%), Arrivals to Vanuatu and Hawaii surged 71% and 12% respectively, but the Marshall Islands and Northern Marianas reported double-digit declines for the month.  

The latest figures from JNTO showed that both inbound and outbound demand for Japan fell sharply in March, by 50% and 18% respectively. The NTO is hopeful the situation would return to normalcy from June as a large part of the country is not affected by the earthquake and tsunami and the on-going issues at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Kris Lim, Director of PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre said moderating growth was to be expected following last year’s impressive recovery.

“Going forward, economic fundamentals remain strong and the positive momentum is expected to continue but the aftermath of the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to have a dampening effect on travel demand in the short-term.”