Southeast Asia continues to be the one of the fastest growing areas of the Asia Pacific region, in terms of international visitor arrivals. Preliminary data from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) for July 2011 showed that the region experienced an overall 7% year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals during the month, with Southeast and South Asia both registering double-digit growth.
International visitor arrivals to Southeast Asia increased 11% year-on-year in July 2011. The growth rate of arrivals into Thailand (+19%) returned to a more normal level after three consecutive months of post-crisis peaks, which were inflated following poor figures during the political turmoil of April to June 2010. Demonstrating the overall strength of the sub-region, all reporting destinations achieved double-digit growth.
South Asia recorded the strongest arrivals growth in July, increasing 14% and adding almost 90,000 more international visitors compared to July 2010. India (+10%) grew at a faster rate than in previous months due in part to the lower base of July 2010. The Maldives (+27%), Nepal (+20%) and Sri Lanka (+32%) also saw buoyant growth.
Northeast Asia saw a rebound during July, achieving a 6% increase in arrivals for the month after posting slow growth since February this year. China (+2%) grew much more slowly than Hong Kong (+22%) and Macau (+18%) during this period. Due to its very large arrivals base however, the mainland still managed to welcome more than 260,000 additional visitors during the month compared to July 2010. The Japanese outbound market increased 5% in July – the first month of growth since the 11 March disasters. This promising expansion supported growth for all reporting Northeast Asian destinations, particularly Taiwan (+9%) and South Korea (+17%). Inbound visitors to Japan however, were down by 36% in July.
The Pacific region saw a drop in international arrivals of 3% in July 2011. This rate of decline however, is still a slight improvement over the 4% drop seen in the previous month. Most Pacific destinations reported fewer international arrivals in July 2011 compared to July 2010, although there were some exceptions. New Caledonia (+24%), the Cook Islands (+13%), Palau (+11%), Vanuatu (+11%) and Papua New Guinea (+5%) all registered more visitors during the month.
John Koldowski, Director of PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre said; “Even during times of economic uncertainty, the Asia Pacific region continues to perform strongly, reinforcing its image and position as a powerhouse of international travel and tourism. The source market mix however, is changing. Some of the more traditional origin markets are losing ground to emerging ones. Arrivals from Russia for example have increased by more than 50% so far this year. Numerically, the Russians are now as important as – for example – France and even Germany.”
PATA also noted that the region’s growth rate has become more stable following the global economic recovery phase, which started in early 2010 and peaked in June of that year. Since then, Asia Pacific has continued to show healthy expansion. For the first seven months of 2011, international visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific have grown 5%, with South Asia (+14%), Southeast Asia (+12%), Northeast Asia (+4%) and the Pacific (+1%) all seeing an upturn in visitor numbers.
Koldowski added that intra-Asian growth is “substantial”, with Asia generating more than seven million additional arrivals to the Asia Pacific region during the seven months to July 2011.
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