Asia Pacific destinations collectively welcomed close to 520 million international visitor

arrivals (IVAs) in calendar year 2013 according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association's (PATA's) just released Annual Tourism Monitor 2014 Early Edition. Covering 42 destinations across 11 sub-regions of the Asia Pacific region, this report gives a five-year perspective on travel flows into and within this dynamic and vigorous part of the world.

Key findings from the report show that:

Between 2009 and 2013 the growth in IVAs into Asia Pacific grew by an average of 6.3

percent per annum, moderating in 2013 to 5.3 percent year-on-year.

Destinations in Asia captured just fewer than three-quarters of the total foreign inbound

volume in 2013 (74 percent), with the Americas taking up around 22 percent and the Pacific sub-region the remaining four percent.

Within the Asia context, Northeast Asia captured some 243 million IVAs in 2013 followed

by Southeast Asia (98 million), West Asia (38 million) and South Asia (9.9 million)

The top three Asia Pacific destinations by volume of arrivals in 2013 were:

  1. China 129.077 million
  2. The USA 69.746 million
  3. Hong Kong SAR 54.299 million

While by annual growth (percent), the top three Asia Pacific destinations were:

  1. Myanmar +51.7 percent
  2. Niue +39.6 percent
  3. Sri Lanka +26.7 percent

Among the principal source markets, Hong Kong SAR, China and the USA were the

largest contributors in terms of the absolute number of visitor arrivals, while China, the Russian Federation and Vietnam contributed the greatest annual increase in volume between 2012 and 2013.

In addition to the aggregate inbound counts of foreign arrivals, this Early Edition report

also provides an extensive review of 13 major source markets across the destinations of the Asia Pacific in calendar year 2013.

Martin J. Craigs, CEO of PATA, commented that "This report provides a first look at the

detailed movement of foreign arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations during 2013 and when combined with the recently released PATA forecasts for the period 2014-2018 gives all of us in the travel and tourism industry a solid quantifiable measure of what just eventuated during the year, and what the likely projections will be for the coming five-year period."

He further added: "As such it is an indispensable tool to assist in making those

important marketing resource allocation decisions in the immediate future."

For more information about the PATA Annual Travel Monitor 2014 Early Edition and the

wider suite of reports including the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2014-2018, please contact the Publications Unit at [email protected].

About PATA

Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (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 member organisations, which including government, state and city tourism bodies; international airlines and airports; hospitality organisations, and educational institutions, as well as thousands of 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 32 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 28 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.