South Asia, Southeast Asia lead Asia Pacific’s tourism boom

Preliminary results released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today showed that international visitor arrivals into Asia/Pacific destinations1 grew by four per cent year-on-year in May, with the South Asia and Southeast Asia sub-regions recording particularly strong performances for the month.
The first five months of 2011 showed South Asia attracted a 15 pr cent increase in visitor arrivals, whereas Southeast Asia came second with 12 per cent. But Northeast Asia and the Pacific, on the other hand, only managed three per cent arrivals. Across the whole of Asia/Pacific the average growth in international visitor arrivals was five per cent for the first five months of 2011.
International arrivals to South Asia also showed strong growth with a collective gain of 12 per cent in May, maintaining the same pace of growth seen in 2010. All reporting destinations in the sub-region enjoyed an increase in foreign arrivals, led by Nepal (up by 47 per cent), Sri Lanka (up by 39 per cent), the Maldives (up by 11 per cent) and India (up by seven per cent), the PATA report revealed.
"Intra-regional travel remains the key," director of the Strategic Intelligence Centre at PATA Kris Lim said, adding that the dynamic China and India outbound markets continue to expand at a rapid pace with many Indian and Chinese travellers visiting Southeast Asia.
As for Japan’s inbound market it appears that the bottom of the trough has been reached and some positive movements are now being seen."The outlook remains broadly positive in the second half of the year," it said. 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.
"Similarly, Southeast Asia recorded the largest arrivals gain of 16 per cent during May, boosted by a 66 per cent rebound in arrivals to Thailand, as well as by strong demand growth for Vietnam (up by 37 per cent), Myanmar (up by 33 per cent), Cambodia (up by 12 per cent) and Singapore (up by 11 per cent).
Growth in arrivals to Northeast Asia, however, was a weak at 0.6 per cent for the month, highlighting the impact of sharply lower arrival numbers to Japan (down by 50 per cent) and the decline in the number of Japanese visitors travelling to neighbouring destinations.
In addition to Japan, Chinese Taipei (down by seven per cent) and China (down by one per cent) also recorded falling arrivals numbers for the month. Conversely, foreign arrivals growth for Hong Kong SAR (up by 15 per cent), Macau SAR (up by nine per cent) and Korea (up by two per cent) remained positive during May.