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PATA: One billion international visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific on the horizon

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PATA: One billion international visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific on the horizon
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BANGKOK, January 21, 2020 — Asia Pacific remains solidly on the path to welcome close to one billion international visitor arrivals (IVAs) over the next five years. This is one of the key predictions from the Executive Summary of the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2020-2024, released today by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). Covering the years 2019 to 2024 and 39 destinations within the region, these forecasts anticipate a volume of over 971 million international visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific, by 2024.
The strong increase in IVAs has been driven by the average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 5.3% between 2014 and 2019, and that momentum is expected to increase even further over the next five years, to average 6.3% per annum between 2019 and 2024.

This will result in an acceleration of more than 256 million additional IVAs into the region between 2019 and 2024, a significant increase over the additional volume of 162 million added between 2014 and 2019.

The distribution of these IVAs in Asia Pacific is expected to change only marginally from 2019, with the Asia and Pacific regions expected to show some relative, as well as absolute increases in arrival numbers.

Asia is forecast to remain as the dominant destination region and is likely to improve its relative share to over 77% by 2024.The Americas will come in second, although its share is expected to reduce slightly over the period between 2019 and 2024.
As a generator of IVAs into and across Asia Pacific however, Asia is predicted to continue growing in relative share, accounting for almost 68% of all IVAs into the region in 2024. This is likely to be at the expense of both the Americas and Europe, both of which are predicted to wane, at least in terms of their respective shares as source regions for Asia Pacific, between 2014 and 2024.
Eleven Asia Pacific destinations are predicted to each receive more than 10 million additional IVAs between 2019 and 2024, with China leading the way, expecting to add around 38.2 million more arrivals to its inbound count and raising the aggregate volume to almost 208 million in 2024.

Japan is ranked next, followed by Macao, China and then Mexico, with all of these destinations expected to receive more than 20 million additional foreign arrivals each, over the forecast period to 2024.
The top group of 11 destinations, as shown in Exhibit 4, is likely to account for 77% of the IVA volume into Asia Pacific in 2024 and more than three-quarters of the additional arrivals over that same period.

In addition, it is predicted that nine out of ten destinations will have AAGRs between 2019 and 2024 in excess of 10%, ranging from 10.2% for the Maldives to 21% for Cambodia. The volume bases for each of these destinations vary widely, however these very strong average rates of growth are certainly worth closely watching over the forecast period.
The top ten strongest source markets into Asia Pacific between 2019 and 2024 are forecast to include China, the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong SAR in the top three positions, generating a collective volume of more than 369 million IVAs over that period. These three source markets alone are also predicted to generate an additional volume of more than 106 million IVAs into Asia Pacific over the same period.
Much of that volume is of course, generated by internal Greater China flows, especially from China into Macao, China and Hong Kong SAR and to a lesser degree vice-versa as can be seen from the top source-destination pairs as shown in Exhibit 7.
Adjusting for the Greater China source-destination pairs, the importance of China for a number of other Asia Pacific destinations becomes obvious, with China appearing five out of the possible ten times, as a major source market.
The relative strength of the close intra-regional flows also becomes evident in the top ten cluster of source-destination pairs as illustrated in Exhibit 8.

In commenting on these forecasts, PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy points out that, “For many destinations, there is now an immediate and necessary shift from generating arrivals to properly managing those visitors. It is no longer enough to think and talk about this, the time to put into action such management practices that ensure that visitors into and across the Asia Pacific region receive a superlative and memorable experience is now.”

“The tourism juggernaut is a reality, and this means that, as a socio-economic sector, travel and tourism needs to ensure that it has the necessary mindset and infrastructure – both hard and soft – to enable growth of this magnitude to be properly managed. It is incumbent upon us all to deliver both memorable experiences and positive outcomes for visitors, residents and the environment in equal measure.”
— ENDS —
Editor’s Note: To view and/or download the high resolution infographics, please visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/patahq/albums/72157712760909962.
About PATA

Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its more than 800 member organisations, including 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 20 international airlines and airports, 102 hospitality organisations and 70 educational institutions, as well as over 4,000 young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world. The PATA network also embraces the grassroots activism the PATA Chapters and Student Chapters, who organise numerous travel industry training programmes and business development events across the world. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 35 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 22 PATA Student Chapters globally. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing and London. Visit www.PATA.org.
Media Contact:

PATA

Paul Pruangkarn
Director – Communications & External Affairs
+66 (02) 658-2000 | communications@PATA.org | Bangkok, Thailand

PATA Travel Mart 2020 to be held in Leshan, Sichuan, China

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BANGKOK, December 23, 2019 — The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is set to organise PATA Travel Mart 2020 in Leshan, Sichuan, China from September 3-6. The event will be hosted by the Leshan Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau.

“We are delighted to be returning to Leshan, Sichuan, China for PATA Travel Mart 2020, having previously worked closely with our various partners to organise the PATA Annual Summit 2015, as well as the annual Emei Global Summit,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy. “With its rich culture and beautiful natural landscapes, tt is the perfect setting for people to access decision makers, meet new clients, expand their networks, establish new relationships and consolidate existing business partnerships, and I would like to welcome members and non-members to join us at this very special destination.”

Leshan is a prefecture-level city located at the confluence of the Dadu and Min rivers in the Sichuan Province of China The city is located on the south-western fringe of the Red Basin in southern Sichuan, about 120 km (75 miles) from Chengdu.

Leshan is one of the most mature tourist destinations in Sichuan and even China. It annually receives over 25 million visitors. The Leshan Giant Buddha of Mount Emei, a Cultural, Heritage and National 5A tourist attraction, draws worldwide attention due to its profound influence on Buddhist culture and is surrounded by a unique natural landscape. Leshan City is a paradise for leisure and holiday. Other leisure activities in the area include hot springs, skiing and rural tourism.

Travellers can connect to Leshan via Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, then land transfer by car, bus or by speed train from the airport to Leshan city.  It takes approximately one hour and thirty minutes by car or bus, and forty minutes by speed train.

For more information or to register for PATA Travel Mart, please email PTM@PATA.org.

PRESS RELEASE

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TISI increased for the first time within 6 months due to producing new products for New  Year’s Festival, Private Sector demanding for government to develop “Made in Thailand” in a concrete term

 

Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (Mr. Supant Mongkolsuthree) disclosed that the survey of Thailand Industrial Sentiment Index (TISI) as of November 2019 was at 92.3, increasing from 91.2 in October 2019. This increase was the first time during the past six months, starting from June 2019. It was because the entrepreneurs had accelerated to produce product to compensate for less working days in December 2019.  The volume of purchase order and sales had increased both domestically and internationally, especially for fashion product, food, health and beauty products. Three products had served for Christmas and New Year’s Festival.  Moreover, the government’s economies stimulates package had led to positive sign for domestic consumption.

 

According to the nationwide survey of entrepreneurs (1205 persons) on November 2019, the entrepreneurs (60.1%) had some worries on exchange rate (baht pm us dollar). Some entrepreneurs (60.1%)  had concerned about oil price while others (42.2%) worried on local politics. The factors which led to less worries for the entrepreneurs included the global economic condition and the interest rate of loan at 69.5 and 20.7

 

However, the entrepreneurs had worried about the delay of the Act of budget expenditure of 2020. Such delay may affect the government expenditure and public investment, the risk factors resulting from global economic slowdown and the uncertainty of US-China trade war negotiation.

 

The forecast of TISI for the next 3 months is at 101.3, reducing from 102.9 in October 2019. The entrepreneurs worry about the increased minimum wage which would affect the operation cost of SMEs and the drought which would affect the volume of new materials regained for the agro-promising industry as well as the baht appreciation in the region which has a tendency to be appreciated and lower the prior competitiveness of expat product. In case USA and China can reach an agreement on trade deal, it would generate the positive sign of Thai report.

 

The recommendations which are made to the government include

  1. Seek ways to reduce operation cost of entrepreneurs (e.g. reducing water wage and electricity charges after the increase of minimum wage on 1 January 2020 in order to compensate for the increased wage.
  2. Propose to the government to focus on “Made in Thailand” which relates to the government procurement in support for local governments.