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Tourism in Asia rebounds but still well down
Bombay News.Net
Friday 5th March, 2010
Preliminary figures released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) indicate the numbers of international visitors to the Asia Pacific region fell by an estimated 3% in 2009.
The second half showed considerable improvement as the rate of decline from January through June was 6%.
The stronger-than-expected pick up in travel demand in the second half of the year saw visitor arrivals to the region grow by 1% compared to the corresponding period the year prior.
Southeast Asia emerged as the only sub-region in the Asia Pacific to record a full-year gain in international arrivals during 2009.
Visitor numbers rose 1%, bolstered by Myanmar (up 26%), Malaysia (up 7%), Indonesia (up 1%) and Cambodia (up 2%). Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam, however, recorded full-year declines of 3%, 4%, and 10% respectively.
Arrivals to Northeast Asia fell by 2% in 2009, the second straight year of decline for the sub-region after a similar 2% decline in 2008.
The full-year arrivals numbers were down for Japan (- 19%), Macau (- 5%) and China (- 3%), while Taiwan was up 14%, and South Korea up 13%. Hong Kong recorded a marginal 0.3% increase in arrivals for the year.
South Asia recorded a 3% decline in visitor arrivals in 2009, driven by a similar 3% fall in arrivals to India. While growth in arrivals to India remained sluggish in the second half of the year, arrivals rebounded strongly for Sri Lanka and Nepal resulting in full-year gains to those destinations of 2% and 1% respectively.
Visitor arrivals to the Pacific declined by 2% in 2009, mainly on sharp falls in visitor numbers to Guam, which was down 8%, and Hawaii, where visitor arrivals fell by 4%.
Arrivals to Australia and New Zealand were flat.
The Americas recorded the largest decline in arrivals among the sub-regions with an estimated 6% fall for the full year. The numbers of international visitor arrivals to Canada, the USA and Mexico were down for the year while Chile recorded a 1% increase.
Kris Lim, Director of PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre (SIC), said, “We ended the year on a positive note with international visitor arrivals to Asia Pacific shores growing by 4% year-on-year in December. This is by far the largest monthly growth in 2009. It has been an extremely challenging year but not the worst on record in growth terms."
“Arrivals fell even more sharply in 2003, by seven percent, as the SARS crisis impacted severely on international travel. The recovery in 2010 is, however, unlikely to follow the V-shaped rebound of 2004. We are better placed now than six months ago as the economic climate continues to improve. The IMF is now expecting stronger growth of 3.9% for the world’s economy this year, with ‘developing Asia’ leading the way at 8.4%,” he said.  Email this story to a friend
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