South Asia recorded a three per cent decline in tourist arrivals in 2009, driven by a three per cent fall in arrivals to India. While growth in arrivals to India remained sluggish in the second half of the year, arrivals rebounded strongly for Sri Lanka and Nepal during the period resulting in full-year gains to those destinations of two per cent and one per cent respectively, according to preliminary figures released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

PATA’s figures indicate that the numbers of international visitors to the Asia Pacific region fell by an estimated three per cent year-on-year for calendar year 2009, a much improved result considering the fact that the rate of decline was six per cent for the first half of the year.

The stronger-than-expected pick-up in travel demand in the second half of the year saw visitor arrivals to the region grow by one percent year-on-year in the July-December period, a press release issued by PATA stated.

Southeast Asia emerged as the only sub-region in Asia Pacific to record a full-year gain in international arrivals in 2009. The number of tourist rose one per cent year-on-year, supported by Myanmar (+26 per cent), Malaysia (+7 per cent), Indonesia (+1 per cent) and Cambodia (+2 per cent). Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam, on the other hand, recorded full-year declines of three per cent, four per cent and ten per cent respectively.

Arrivals to Northeast Asia fell by two per cent in 2009, the second straight year of decline for the sub-region after a similar two per cent fall in 2008. The full-year arrivals numbers were down for Japan (- 19 per cent), Macau SAR (- 5 per cent) and China (- 3 per cent) while Chinese Taipei (+14 per cent) and the Republic of Korea (+13 per cent) posted increased visitor numbers. Hong Kong SAR recorded a marginal 0.3 per cent increase in arrivals for the year, it added.

Visitor arrivals to the Pacific declined by two percent in 2009 mainly on sharp falls in visitor numbers to Guam (- 8 percent) and Hawaii (- 4 percent). Arrivals to Australia and New Zealand were flat.

The Americas recorded the largest decline in arrivals among the sub-regions with an estimated six percent fall for the full year. The numbers of international visitor arrivals to Canada, the USA and Mexico were down for the year while Chile recorded a one percent increase.