South Asia and Southeast Asia lead APAC's tourism boom

International visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations grew by 4% year-on-year in May 2011, with South Asia and Southeast Asia recording particularly strong performances for the month.

Preliminary results released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) showed South Asia had a 15% increase in visitor arrivals. Southeast Asia came second with 12%. Northeast Asia and the Pacific, on the other hand, only managed 3%.

Across the whole of Asia Pacific the average growth in international visitor arrivals was 5% for the first five months of this year.

Southeast Asia: Recorded the largest arrivals gain of 16% in May, boosted by a 66% rebound in arrivals to Thailand, as well as by strong growth in Vietnam (+37%), Myanmar (+33%), Cambodia (+12%) and Singapore (+11%).

South Asia: A collective gain of 12% in international arrivals in May, which was the same rate of growth as in 2010. Destinations that enjoyed an increase in foreign arrivals were Nepal (+47%), Sri Lanka (+39%), the Maldives (+11%) and India (+7%).

Northeast Asia: Growth in arrivals was a weak 0.6% for the month. Japan experienced a sharp drop in arrivals (–50%), as well as a decline in the number of Japanese visitors travelling to neighbouring destinations. Chinese Taipei and China also recorded a drop in arrivals for the month, at –7% and –1% respectively. Countries that saw growth were Hong Kong (+15%), Macau (+9%) and South Korea (+2%) remained positive during May 2011.

The Pacific: Recorded declines in visitor numbers for the month at a marginal rate of –0.6%. There were decline in arrivals for Guam (–20%), Northern Marianas (–13%), New Caledonia (–10%), Samoa -5% and New Zealand -0.4%. Countries that saw an increase in arrivals were Palau (+30%), Cook Islands (+17%), Marshall Islands (+18%) and Australia (3%).

Kris Lim, director of PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre, PATA, said intra-regional travel remained the key, with the dynamic China and India outbound markets continuing to expand with many Indian and Chinese travellers visiting Southeast Asia.”

“The outlook remains broadly positive in the second half of the year. Coupled with the gradual easing of negative growth seen in Japan, the arrivals growth momentum is expected to continue. We are hopeful of a stronger third quarter boosted by the northern hemisphere summer holiday period,” he added.

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