The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has posted results concerning international visitor arrivals in Asia in January-September 2012. While the region features the growth of 5.5% in the number of arrivals, some countries have posted truly tremendous results.
The collective growth of Northeast Asia estimated 4.7% during first nine months of 2012. While the percentage seems to be quite small, this means that 7.8 million more travellers visited the region during the specified period. Some destinations like China (-2%) and Macau (+1%) post modest results, while other destinations feature a significant growth Japan (+41%), Chinese Taipei (+24%), and Korea (+19%).
Another sub region, South East Asia, features modest results comparing to the double-digit growth of the abovementioned countries. Hotels in India posted the growth of 6% during January-September 2012, and the Maldives - +3%. This is definitely less than the huge growth of 2010 and 2011, when the growth of the number of visitors was a double digit. The main reason for that is the prolonged economic crisis in the main source market for the region Europe. Despite this fact Europe remains the main traffic generator, followed by Northeast Asia. Nevertheless, the softening of growth rates is seen throughout the region except for two destinations. These are Cambodia and Myanmar. The growth of the number of visitors there estimated +24% and +43% respectively.