Double-digit tourism growth for Asia and Pacific in 2010

BANGKOK, Thailand – The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today released preliminary tourism arrival statistics for Asia and the Pacific for calendar year 2010, showing a gain of 11% year-on-year

BANGKOK, Thailand – The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today released preliminary tourism arrival statistics for Asia and the Pacific for calendar year 2010, showing a gain of 11% year-on-year. Compared to the corresponding month in 2009, the number of international arrivals in December 2010 was seven percent higher.

South Asia reported the strongest sub-regional arrival growth for the year, with an aggregate gain of 14% reaching an inbound volume count of just over 8.4-million. India, which captures 70% of the total foreign arrivals to the sub-region, posted a strong 9 percent increase to set a new record of 5.6 million foreign inbound visits for the year. Sri Lanka (+46%), the Maldives (+21%), and Nepal (+19%) also each set new records in terms of visitor volumes on even stronger growth performances last year.

International arrivals to Southeast Asia were 12% higher for 2010 as compared to a year earlier, reaching a volume count of more than 72 million. All destinations in the sub-region set new arrival records, with growth in traffic to Vietnam (+35%), Singapore (+20%), the Philippines (+17%), and Thailand (+12%) being particularly impressive.

Northeast Asia posted full-year arrivals growth of 11%, reaching a foreign inbound volume of more than 218 million. The strong full-year performances were driven by solid results from Chinese Taipei (+27%), Japan (+27%), Hong Kong (+22%), Mongolia (+20%), and Korea (ROK) (+13%), with all of these setting new records. Macau posted a strong 2010 year-end result (+15%) but is still a little behind the inbound count of 27 million set in 2007.

Growth in the total international visitor inbound count for China was a more modest 6 percent in 2010, however, this translates to an additional 7.3 million additional international arrivals over the 2009 count. Growth in foreign arrivals to China โ€“ that is excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau, and Chinese Taipei โ€“ was a more robust 19% for the year, reaching a volume of more than 26.1 million arrivals, again, another record.

The Pacific recorded an increase in foreign arrivals of 5 percent for calendar year 2010. Australia and New Zealand, with record arrivals of 5.9 million and 2.5 million respectively, reported full-year growth of 5 percent and 3 percent respectively for the year. Growth was particularly strong for a number of the smaller Pacific destinations โ€“ albeit off a much smaller numeric base โ€“ namely Niue (+33%), Papua New Guinea (+19%), and Palau (+19%).

Said Kris Lim, Director, Strategic Intelligence Centre, PATA: โ€œFor the travel and tourism industry in Asia and the Pacific, 2010 has been a very strong year. The results for Asia are particularly impressive, with all 3 sub-regions recording double-digit growth in arrivals, underpinned by the recovery in the key regional source markets of Japan and Korea (ROK); the continued expansion of the China and India outbound markets; the continually expanding low-cost carrier (LCC) network in Southeast Asia; and a number of global events that took place in Asia such as the Shanghai World Expo in China and the Commonwealth Games in India.

โ€œThe economic outlook for 2011 remains broadly positive but growth in GDP and trade worldwide is expected to moderate, following a robust recovery last year. The USA and Europe remain relatively weak, which means the bulk of the inbound growth for Asia Pacific could be intra-regional going forward,โ€ added Lim.

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