ASIA PACIFIC. International visitor arrivals (IVAs) to 30 key Asia Pacific destinations have climbed by +6.2% year-on-year in Q3 2018, hitting a record 97.3 million. That’s according to Pacific Asia Travel Association’s latest Quarterly Tourism Monitor. It covers 30 locations that have reported figures for the period.
Northeast Asia reported above-average year-on-year growth of +8.1%, driven mainly by strong volume gains to South Korea (+23%), Macau (+8.8%) and Hong Kong SAR (+8.4%).
Nepal dominated in South Asia in percentage growth terms with a surge of +36.9% during Q3, boosted by continued strong traffic from the top source markets – China (+77.1%) and India (+62.9%).
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam outperformed its neighbours in terms of percentage growth, showing a double-digit increase of +14.9%, while Myanmar posted a marginal decrease of -2.5% in this period.
In the Pacific region, due to a reduction of flights, Palau reported a significant drop of Chinese arrivals by almost -40%, leading to a decrease in the total visitor arrival count of -20.8% for the quarter. The Northern Marianas also saw a decline in IVAs, driven by a large drop in arrivals from Northeast Asia (-13.3%).
Within Asia and the Pacific, Thailand has remained one of the top destinations for visitors from Europe although numbers show a slight decline of -1.4% during the quarter. Singapore, on the other hand, posted strong growth of +15% from Europe, adding close to 71,000 more arrivals in this quarter.
