ASIA India posted a 9% increase in foreign arrivals in 2010, setting a new record with 5.6 million foreign inbound visits for the year, according to Pacific Asia Travel Association.
Growth in foreign arrivals to mainland China was a robust 19% for the year, reaching a volume of more than 26.1 million arrivals—another record. Growth in the total international visitor inbound count for China was a modest 6% in 2010, which translates to an additional 7.3 million international arrivals over the 2009 count.
Sri Lanka (up 46%), the Maldives (up 21%) and Nepal (up 19%) also each set new records in terms of visitor volumes on even stronger growth performances last year.
Overall preliminary tourism arrival statistics for Asia Pacific show a gain of 11% year-on-year for the region. Compared to the corresponding month in 2009, the number of international arrivals in December 2010 was 7% higher, according to PATA.
South Asia reported the strongest subregional arrivals growth for the year, with an aggregate gain of 14% reaching an inbound volume count of more than 8.4 million.
International arrivals to Southeast Asia were 12% higher for 2010 compared to a year earlier, reaching a volume count of more than 72 million. All destinations in the subregion set new arrivals records, with growth in traffic to Vietnam (up 35%), Singapore (up 20%), the Philippines (up 17%) and Thailand (up 12%) being particularly strong.
Northeast Asia posted full-year arrivals growth of 11%, reaching a foreign inbound volume of more than 218 million. The strong full-year performances were driven by solid results from Taiwan (up 27%), Japan (up 27%), Hong Kong (up 22%), Mongolia (up 20%) and South Korea (up 13%), with all of these setting new records. Macau posted a strong 2010 year-end result (up 15%) but is still a little behind the inbound count of 27 million set in 2007.
The Pacific recorded an increase in foreign arrivals of 5% for calendar year 2010. Australia and New Zealand, with record arrivals of 5.9 million and 2.5 million, respectively, reported full-year growth of 5% and 3%, respectively, for the year.
“The economic outlook for 2011 remains broadly positive, but growth in GDP and trade worldwide is expected to moderate, following a robust recovery last year,” says Kris Lim, director of strategic intelligence for PATA. “The USA and Europe remain relatively weak, which means the bulk of the inbound growth for Asia Pacific could be intraregional going forward.”
