In his presentation in Macau at the recent conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association on Air Travel Trends and Outlook for Asia Pacific, ForwardKeys Director for Intelligence and Marketing Olivier Ponti said the best regional markets in Asia Pacific in the first quarter of 2024, were Vietnam, with international arrivals exceeding the same period in 2019 by 13 percent; followed by India ; and the Philippines, Australia, and Thailand each at 3-percent less than 2019.
This developed as other markets made up for the slow rebound in Chinese arrivals in the Philippines. Department of Tourism data from January to May 25 this year showed arrivals from China reaching 164,065, or 88.6 percent higher than the 86,980 arrivals in January to May 31, 2023. However, this was 77.6 percent less than the 733,769 who arrived in the same period in prepandemic 2019.
Total international arrivals reached 2.47 million from January 1-May 25 this year, just 29-percent behind the 3.5 million who arrived in 2019. Topping the list of source markets was South Korea, from which there were 659,180 visitors, 16-percent less than the same period in 2019. It was followed by the United States at 385,499 ; China; Japan at 154,026 ; Australia at 108,700 ; Canada at 98,425 ; Taiwan at 91,055 ; the United Kingdom at 70,976 ; Singapore at 61,259 ; and Germany at 40,448 .
As airline seat capacity into the region remains limited, “airfares to Asia persist above prepandemic levels despite a downward trend,” as per actual flights booked from January to April 2024, said Ponti.He also noted the rising importance of sustainability by many international carriers, with 31 percent of “new-gen aircraft” flying to the Philippines in 2023, up 25.5 percentage points from 2019.
Booked tickets as of April 27 indicated that total inbound arrivals for the second quarter this year will be 13 percent behind 2019 levels, and 3-percent less than 2019 for the summer season . For Asia Pacific specifically, arrivals will be 24-percent less than 2019 for the second quarter this year, and 12-percent lower than 2019 for summer.