The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has released preliminary figures for international visitor arrivals into Asia and the Pacific [1] for the month of February 2011, showing a year-on-year increase of 5 percent. February demand growth was to a certain degree impacted by the shift of the Lunar New Year from the middle of the month in 2010 to the first week of the month this year. 

South Asia continued to set the pace with the strongest arrivals growth from among the four sub-regions covered in February with a gain of 15%. Two destinations involved in the hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India and Sri Lanka, recorded the fastest arrivals growth of 15% for the month. Arrivals to the Maldives (+13%) and Nepal (+12%) also grew strongly in February. 

Travel demand to Southeast Asia remained robust with arrivals to the sub-region growing by 10 percent year-on-year, with the majority of the destinations recording double-digit gains in arrivals, led by Cambodia (+22%), Myanmar (+29%), and Vietnam (+22%). 

Northeast Asia on the other hand registered a significantly slower growth of 3 percent for the month, but added 1.4 million more visitors. Chinese Taipei (+17%) maintained strong inbound growth but growth for other destinations in the sub-region were modest ranging from 2 percent (China, Hong Kong SAR, and Japan) to 5 percent (Macau SAR). 

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