Annual Tourism Monitor 2020: Key Takeaways
Outstanding performance of foreign arrival numbers was observed in 2019, however, the appearance of COVID-19 and its continuous global spread forced the performance of early 2020 to take a drastic turn.
Total international visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific, 2015 to 2019.
The climbing numbers of foreign arrivals in 2019 were unable to maintain into 2020 as COVID-19 became widespread and uncontainable, upsetting all travel and tourism related plans. According to the Annual Tourism Monitor (ATM) 2020 released by PATA, the moderate gain of foreign arrivals (6.3%) dramatically dropped to -67% in early 2020 compared to same period of the previous year, indicating loss of more than 172M visitors.
International visitor arrivals into Asia Pacific, early 2016 to early 2020.
International Inbound Travel: Early 2020
(Considering COVID-19 related containment practices were taken at various time across the globe, only those Asia Pacific destinations with data for first half of 2020 (1H2020) are considered in the report.)
Thirty-six out of 37 destinations reported a decrease between early 2019 and 2020, and the only increase was insignificant, as it was recorded when the pandemic has yet to bring the actual impacts to tourism industry globally. Within the recorded group of Asia Pacific destinations, all showed shrinkage in international visitor arrivals (IVAs) during 1H2020, ranging from -41% to even near -90% comparing to the same period last year. Therefore, Asia Pacific destinations ranking top five can only be listed in terms of the least negative growth relative to 1H2019.
Top 5 Asia Pacific Destinations by the least negative IVA growth rate, 1H2020/1H2019.
Even with the least affected destinations, the loss in IVAs decreased rapidly from 100K to almost 500K. The combined decrease in IVAs within the 37 destinations reached 67%, just in early 2020.
Top 5 Asia Pacific Destinations by the least negative changes in IVAs, 1H2020/1H2019.
“On the data available, it is obvious that no Asia Pacific destination was spared by the impacts of the current pandemic and the lockdown measures needed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the first half of 2020, relative to the same period of a year ago,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy.
“While bemoaning the impact of this pandemic on the lives of so many and the livelihoods of so many more, it also gives us an opportunity to ask why we were so ill-prepared to respond to the threat of COVID-19. The consequence of that would be to engage in business and personal practices that ultimately offer better protection from such threats into the future.”
To gain more insights from the Annual Tourism Monitor 2020, watch the webinar recording on International Visitor Arrivals into Asia Pacific in 2020 and Expectations for 2021 >
For more highlights and infographics, read the press release >
To learn more about the report’s content and pricing, visit the research catalog >
