European Tourists Lead Tourism Boom in the Asia-Pacific Region
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) revealed this week that a surge in tourism across the region has been driven by people taking cheap flights to Asian destinations such as Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Holidays to Asian destinations have been enjoying something of a "tourism boom", according to the association. There has been an overall 6 per cent year-by-year increase in overseas visitor arrivals for Asia-Pacific destinations in June, compared to the same period in 2010.
By the end of 2011, PATA expects some 433 million people to have visited the region from other countries, compared to just 408 million the previous year, with most coming from Europe.
The largest single increase in arrivals was found in south-east Asia, which boasted 15.5 per cent year-on-year growth. This was fuelled greatly by a massive 54 per cent increase in the number of overseas visitors taking cheap flights to Thailand.
PATA went on to say that there had also been double-figure increases in the amount of tourists taking cheap flights to Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, which reported rises of 38 per cent, 27 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre director Kris Lim commented: "The first-half year growth of around 5 per cent, given the challenges the industry has faced so far this year, underlines the resilience of travel and tourism in the Asia/Pacific region."
He went on to say that the ever-increasing number of carriers offering cheap flights to Asia, with the consequent expanding variety of destinations and extra airline seat capacity, was a major reason for this success.
Holidays News posted by 
on 02 September 2011
cheap flights, cheap flights to Asia, Sri Lanka holidays, cheap flights to Thailand, cheap flights to Nepal
http://www.pata.org/press/pata-asia-dominates-asia-pacific-tourism-boom
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