Destinations in Asia Pacific are expected to welcome 33 million more foreign arrivals in 2015 compared to 2014, with the expected total inbound volume increasing to approximately 547 million by the end of the year, according to Volume I of the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s annual Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2015–19.

The increase averages out to an annual growth rate of 6 per cent for the Asia Pacific region as a whole.

“Destinations to watch this year include Palau, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea as their individual growth rates are expected to be around 20 per cent or even higher,” said Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA. “At the volume increase level we expect 11 of the 38 destinations covered in these forecasts to see increases of more than 1 million foreign arrivals during the year, with several at levels of 4 million or more. Overall, 25 destinations will see their foreign inbound counts rise by more than 100,000 for the year.”

Intra-regional travel is predicted to continue to dominate this year, with more than 80 per cent of the flows from Northeast Asia traveling to other destinations within Northeast Asia. Southeast Asia is expected to have three-quarters of the total flows in 2015 from that sub-region arriving at other destinations within Southeast Asia.

Malaysia and Thailand are forecasted to each generate more than an additional 1 million arrivals above the 2014 count. The United States is also slated to deliver an additional 1.5 million arrivals to the collective Asia-Pacific destinations during 2015.

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