Preliminary results released today by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) show a collective increase of 6% year-on-year for international arrivals into Asia/Pacific1 destinations during each of the months of October and November 2011. For the first 11 months of the year, South Asia was the star growth performer, followed by Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and the Pacific, all of which saw tourism demand improve albeit at different rates of growth. This momentum is expected to continue for the rest of the year and paves the way for an expected full-year arrivals gain of 5-6% in 2011, above the global growth figure of 4%. The overall international visitor arrivals count to the wider Asia Pacific region – which includes North America - is expected to reach around 430 million for 2011.
Travel demand to South Asia was particularly strong with growth of 15% for the month of October (year-on-year), however this momentum stalled a little in November when the aggregate gain fell to 9%. With the exception of India, all reporting destinations within this sub-region showed outstanding results with double-digit growth during the month of November. A number of destinations in the region set new records for monthly foreign visitor volumes including the Maldives (+22%) and Nepal (+17%) in October and Sri Lanka (+26%) in November. Growth into the sub-region was supported by a strong performance out of Europe backed up with continued strong expansion out of China and India. Not surprisingly, this sub-region is poised to emerge as the fastest growing in the Asia/Pacific region with a full-year gain expectation of around 11%-12% for 2011.
Southeast Asia recorded a relatively slower close on the year with growth of 7% and 3% in October and November 2011 respectively. A number of factors were responsible for this result, most particularly the flooding that occurred across many destinations. Thailand, although partially impacted by flooding - and a negative perception of the extent of the flooding - realised a gain of 8% and a loss of 18% in foreign arrivals during October and November 2011 respectively, compared to the corresponding periods in 2010. This negative effect also continued through December but at a reduced rate. Thanks to sustained travel demand out of China in particular, many reporting destinations managed to show double-digit growth in November ranging from 43% for Vietnam, 26% for Myanmar, 20% for the Philippines to 13% for Indonesia. Overall, growth in international arrivals to Southeast Asia for calendar year 2011 is expected to be around 11%.
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