Asia-Pacific sees record tourism boom, with China leading charge

Chinese outbound visitors make up the largest group in region for five years running

The latest report released by the Pacific Asia Travel Association shows that the region's 47 destinations received a record 597 million foreign visitors last year, with China listed as the largest source of outbound tourists.

More than 246 million outbound visits from China to other Asia-Pacific destinations drove the region's annual year-on-year increase in foreign arrivals to 3 percent, or close to 18 million visits.

Of them, 93.7 million arrivals originated from Hong Kong, 24.4 million from Macao and more than 19.8 million from Taiwan.

Led by China, Northeast Asia became the largest contributor to the massive influx of outbound visitors, with 23.2 million originating from South Korea and 20.3 million from Japan.

The United States, which generated 45.8 million foreign visits, made the list of top-10 global economies as outbound tourist sources in the region, followed by its North American neighbors Canada, with 24.9 million, and Mexico, with 20.3 million.

Singapore was the only country from Southeast Asia on the top-10 listing, generating close to 19.9 million visits for the year.

On the other hand, 17 of those destinations had double-digit growth rates, ranging from more than 30 percent for Nepal and South Korea to over 20 percent for Mongolia, Japan and Vietnam.

Across the three major areas in the Asia-Pacific region, Asia was the front-runner for foreign arrivals by volume with almost 436 million international arrivals, up 70 percent from a year earlier. The Americas followed with close to 147 million arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 34 percent. The Pacific reported 24.5 million international arrivals, up 12 percent.

Intra-regional travel flows were extremely strong for Asia and the Americas, with 94 percent and 78 percent, respectively, of their inbound volumes arising from within their own region.

The Pacific was the only destination region to see the majority of its arrivals coming from outside the region. More than 52 percent of foreign arrivals into the Pacific in 2016 came from Asia, whereas the Pacific generated 32 percent of the inbound arrivals within its own region.

"The year was one of strong overall growth and even stronger increases for some sub-regions and individual destinations," said Pacific Asia Travel Association CEO Mario Hardy. "Clearly, the volume is there but the destinations winning and losing fluctuate frequently and rapidly."

Seven Asia-Pacific destinations, including the US, reported contractions in foreign arrivals in 2016 compared to 2015.

"We are in an age where solid marketing metrics are essential to guide strategic decisions and identify appropriate resource deployment alternatives, while reducing, simultaneously, risk and bolstering our ability to capitalize upon swiftly emerging opportunities," Hardy said.

Another Asia-Pacific tourism report, the Mastercard Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2017, which reviewed 171 destinations in the region, found that since China became the top source of tourists to Asia Pacific in 2012 - where it contributed 9.9 percent of international overnight arrivals - the country has retained the ranking for five consecutive years and increased its share to 16.2 percent in 2016.

Tourism generated $2.06 trillion in revenue and created 156.6 million jobs in the region last year, according to the report.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn