During the second quarter of 2019, international visitors arrivals (IVAs) into the region continued their upward trajectory, hitting a new record high of more than 123 million with a growth rate of 7 percent and an increase of over 8 million additional arrivals over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Mexico and Canada dominated the percentage growth terms in the Americas region with solid increases of 9.2 percent and 7.2 percent respectively. In South Asia, Maldives’ percentage growth outperformed its neighbours while Sri Lanka witnessed a large contraction in IVAs by 41.4 percent for the quarter.

In Southeast Asia, four out of nine destinations registered a double-digit growth rates over the same period, led by Myanmar with the gain of over 40 percent.

The PATA Quarterly Tourism Monitor (QTM) provides a quantitative view of the arrivals into all major destinations within the Asia Pacific region and in comparison to the same period of the previous year, on a quarterly basis.

Access additional highlights from QTM 2Q2019 below.

Additional Highlights:

• Southeast Asia reported a year-on-year growth of 5.5 percent and reached a new record level of more than 33 million in this quarter. Four out of nine destinations registered a double-digit growth rates over the same period, led by Myanmar with the gain of over 40 percent.

• In terms of origin markets, the top five European markets for IVAs into Asia Pacific destinations by volume increase generated a collective count of close to 7 million IVAs in this quarter with a 6.3 percent year-on-year growth. Both the UK and Germany remain strong contributors for arrivals into the region, together adding in excess of 300,000 additional arrivals over this period.

• In South Asia, Maldives’ percentage growth outperformed its neighbours with the increase of 23.9 percent, while Sri Lanka witnessed a large contraction in IVAs by 41.4 percent for the quarter. That created a slight decline in the total visitor arrival count of 1.1 percent for the sub-region over this period.

• Mexico and Canada dominated the percentage growth terms in the Americas region with solid increases of 9.2 percent and 7.2 percent respectively, contributing over 1.3 million additional IVAs.

• Northeast Asia registered an impressive year-on-year IVAs growth of 12.7 percent during 2Q2019; however, three destinations performed above that level, ranging from growth rates of 19% to 20%. Collectively, the sub-region received an incremental increase of 4.8 million foreign arrivals in this period.

• In the Pacific region, despite a reduction in foreign arrivals into both Northern Marianas and Palau, the overall regional performance increased 4.4 percent during 2Q2019. French Polynesia (+14.6%) and Fiji (+10.9%) led the pack in percentage growth terms and together they added a little over 30,000 additional IVAs into the region in this period.

Access the Quarterly Tourism Monitor 2Q2019 report through the PATA Store