Asia Pacific remains a leading growth market for world travel with a 5 per cent rise in outbound trips so far this year despite the slowdown in the Chinese economy. Even stronger growth of 6.1 per cent can be expected next year, according to the ITB World Travel Trends Report, which is produced by tourism consultancy IPK International on behalf of ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. This means that the region will once again outpace world travel growth in 2016 and continue to gain market share.
The number of outbound trips made by travellers from Asia Pacific increased by about 5 per cent between January and August this year, according to preliminary World Travel Monitor figures. This followed growth of 6.5 per cent in 2014. In comparison, the number of outbound trips worldwide increased by 4.5 per cent in the first eight months of 2015, the World Travel Monitor found. Rolf Freitag, IPK International president, comments: 'These are very robust figures and show that Asia Pacific has grown slightly faster than the overall worldwide outbound travel market this year, although somewhat more slowly than in 2014.' Inbound travel to and within Asia Pacific has also remained on the growth path this year. International tourist arrivals to the region rose 4.3 per cent over the first eight months of this year, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The latest figures confirm Asia Pacific’s importance as a growth driver for world travel. Since 2007, the total number of outbound trips by travellers from the region (excluding Chinese travel to Hong Kong and Macau) increased by 65 per cent to a total of 170 million trips, according to World Travel Monitor figures. This growth was more than twice as much as overall world growth between 2007 and 2014. Key trends in the Asia Pacific outbound market over this period include rises in short trips, beach holidays and city trips, along with a move to up-market hotels and higher average spending. Looking ahead to next year, IPK predicts a 6.1 per cent rise in Asia Pacific outbound travel, based on its Travel Confidence Index, which measures travel intentions in the region for the next year. According to the index, 70 per cent of travellers in Asia Pacific want to travel at least as much in 2016 as this year, including a high 27 per cent who want to travel more. Significantly, confidence remains high in China and double-digit growth is expected in 2016.