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Positive trends for Asia Pacific tourism

November 05, 2009 |

Latest figures released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association show that the numbers of international visitors to the Asia Pacific region improved by a marginal 0.5 percent during the month of August 2009 compared to August 2008.

However, figures recorded for the first eight months of 2009 in the same region show that international visitor arrivals are down, year-on-year, by some five percent.

Northeast Asia recorded a year-on-year increase of four percent in international visitor arrivals for August 2009 with growth in China (PRC) (+3 percent), Hong Kong SAR (+6 percent) and Macau SAR (+7 percent) pushing the aggregate figure into positive territory (at least in relative terms).

Arrivals to Southeast Asia grew by three percent in August, mainly supported by strong arrivals to Malaysia (+10 percent). Cambodia was the only other country in this sub-region with positive arrivals growth (+9 percent). Rates of decline in arrivals to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam moderated - but arrivals to Indonesia fell by nearly six percent following the bombings in Jakarta in mid-July.

Arrivals to South Asia were down by four percent on a steep nine percent decline in arrivals to India. The smaller countries in the sub-region experienced increased visitor arrivals: Maldives (+1 percent), Nepal (+5 percent) and Sri Lanka (+34 percent). Declines in arrivals to the Pacific slowed to a marginal -0.5 percent year-on-year in August, partly helped by stability in arrivals to Hawaii. Visitor arrivals to the Americas fell by some six percent for the month.

John Koldowski, Director of PATA

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