Collective international
arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations grew by 4%
year-on-year during April 2012, according to preliminary data
released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
In
percentage growth terms, this result was relatively constrained
across the region compared to the robust expansion achieved during
the first quarter of the year. A number of factors underlie this
result including a comparison with the high numeric base of April
2011, which in turn was influenced by a rebound in travel demand
following a number of major natural disasters in the
region, and an earlier Easter holiday period in 2012 shifting some
visitor volume to March. For the first four months of 2012, Asia
Pacific recorded a collective gain of 7% year-on-year.
Foreign
inbound growth to North America was weak at 0.5%. This softening
however, comes on the heels of 12% growth in March where travel
demand was supported by the Easter holiday period. Both the US and
Canada reported positive growth of 2%, whereas Mexico saw a decline
of 6%, largely as a result of diminishing demand in air arrivals from
the US and Canada. Intra-regional flows within North
American destinations and travellers from Japan and China
were the main contributors to growth in April 2012.
International
arrivals to Northeast Asia grew by 5% during the month. Foreign
travel flows softened in China and contracted in the two SARs pushing
the overall growth in international visitor arrivals to the Mainland
into a decline of 4%. Foreign arrivals however, remained positive
with a gain of 4% for the month. Macau SAR recorded another slow
month with a 2% year-on-year increase while, the
remaining destinations in the sub-region all recorded
robust growth – Chinese Taipei (+26%), Hong Kong SAR (+14%), Japan
(+164%) and Korea (ROK) (+28%). The large intra-regional flows were
behind this main boost to tourism growth coupled with Japan’s
comparative position relative to April 2011. Positive trends have
continued for arrivals from the Americas and Europe to
Northeast Asia despite the uncertainties in the Eurozone. It is also
interesting to see that during the first four months of this year,
while foreign arrivals to Japan were still 4% lower than for the
corresponding pre-tsunami period of 2010, Japan outbound demand was
flourishing and set a new record with more than 6 million departures
during the first four months of 2012. Most destinationsacross
Asia Pacific have benefited from this strong increase in outbound
demand from Japan, especially Korea (ROK), Chinese Taipei and the
USA.
South
Asia registered a positive but slower aggregate gain of 5% during
April 2012. Growth was uneven across thedestinations and ranged
from a 1% decrease for the Maldives to a massive (in relative terms)
43% increase for Bhutan. India (+3%) and Sri Lanka (+9%) posted
somewhat slower results compared to the first quarter of the year
while Nepal joined Bhutan in posting a double-digit gain in arrivals
(14%).
Southeast
Asia retained its position as the fastest growing sub-region in Asia
Pacific with a 9% increase in international arrivals during the
month. The smaller volume destinations, notably Cambodia (+24%),
Myanmar (+35%) and the Philippines (+10%) maintained a strong growth
rate in April 2012, while Singapore (+9%) and Thailand (+7%) grew at
a moderate pace. Despite the more moderate growth levels for these
latter two destinations, collectively they added around 200,000
additional international-visitor arrivals to the sub-region for the
month, virtually half of the total volume gain for Southeast Asia.
Travel
demand to the Pacific was up 6% during April 2012. Growth to the
sub-region was boosted by strong arrivals as in Guam (+24%) and
Hawaii (+9%) where the recovery of the Japanese outbound market had a
positive impact. On the other hand, foreign arrivals to Australia and
New Zealand were sluggish with those destinations recording
+1% and -1% growth, respectively. Nonetheless, both destinations have
continued to see travel demand holding up well from the Chinese
market, particularly New Zealand. Other smaller
Pacific destinations recorded somewhat slower performances
with the exception of the Northern Marianas (+42%), where once again
arrivals from China are having a significant and positive impact.
Martin
J Craigs, PATA CEO, said “Global economic conditions continue
to be trying, yet travel demand for Asia
Pacific destinations continues to generally remain positive
albeit with a wide range of performances at both destination and
origin market levels. During the first four months of 2012, Asia
Pacific destinations added close to 9 million additional
international arrivals to the collective count putting the
region well on the road to yet another record year in terms of
foreign inbound numbers. However, the dynamics of these flows are
changing and it will be interesting to see just how these play out in
the months ahead.”
