The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) released the preliminary Asia and the Pacific international visitor arrivals figures for the months of April and May 2010, showing year-on-year growth in arrivals of seven per cent and 16% respectively. For the first five months of 2010, international visitor arrivals to the region grew by a robust 10% as compared to the same period last year.
The improving global economic environment continued to boost overall travel demand in April and May. However, there was a noticeable impact on air travel caused by the ash cloud from Iceland’s volcanic eruption, which dampened arrival flows to and from Europe.
Growth was much stronger in May with the end of the ash cloud problem in Europe and the Labour Day holiday in China (PRC); however, it must be remembered that this monthly comparison is against a lower arrivals base in May 2009 when the travel industry, already down from the global recession, was hit further by the spread of the A (H1N1) flu.
International arrivals to South Asia grew by four per cent and 19% in April and May respectively, with the continuously improving safety and security situation helping to boost arrivals to the sub-region.
Sri Lanka, one year on from the end of the decades-long civil war, continues to record robust growth in arrivals in April and May, at year-on-year rates of 47% and 42% respectively.
For the first five months of the year, arrivals to South Asia surged 15%; the fastest in terms of rate of growth among the sub-regions under review.
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