Asia dominates Asia/Pacific tourism boom: PATA report

Preliminary results released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today showed that international visitor arrivals into Asia/Pacific destinations grew by six per cent year-on-year in June 2011.

The positive momentum of the previous months held strong for Southeast Asia, which led the region with 15.5 per cent growth during the month of June. The rebound in arrivals to Thailand (+54 per cent) positively impacted this overall result, strongly supported by the other reporting destinations in this sub-region all of which enjoyed double-digit growth. This in turn was supported by strong travel demand within ASEAN and an increase in arrivals from China.

International arrivals growth to South Asia was a robust 12 per cent in June, boosted by double-digit increases in inbound numbers to Nepal (+38 per cent), the Maldives (+27 per cent) and Sri Lanka (+20 per cent). India maintained the same pace of growth seen in the previous month at seven per cent. European arrivals are amongst the main contributors to this growth.