Issue #90 - 10 Asia Pacific Travel Statistics You May Have Missed This Week
Singapore and Cambodia target 2025 and 2026 for full visitor recovery.
Welcome to Issue 90 of Asia Travel Re:Set…
Travel is definitely back. My inbox tells me so.
Among the myriad press releases I received in the past 7 days, were:
Summer of Mayhem Will Compound the Travel Insurance Market’s Woes in 2022
Insurance Company [X] and National Carrier [Y] Enter into Travel Insurance Partnership
Let’s Play! Augmented Reality Takes Off at [ABC] Hotels
Hotels Across North and Southeast Asia Choose [XYZ] Concealed Cisterns to Provide Travelers with the Best Amenities.
But is the regional tourism recovery as strong as the spin? Let’s check some stats…
Thanks for being onboard.
The Sunday Itinerary
- “IN THE NEWS”
- 10 Asia Pacific Travel Statistics You May Have Missed This Week
Number crunching in Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and more
- Charting Cambodia’s Aviation Recovery
Checking in on air passenger progress with Cambodia Airports’ Stephen King
“IN THE NEWS”
Over the past 3 months, I've been working with the team at Phocuswright to dig deep into the impacts of COVID-19 on the Chinese travel industry. Grateful thanks to the many people and companies I spoke to inside and outside of China to create an up-to-date picture of China's changing travel and consumer landscape - and the developing outlook for domestic, inbound and outbound travel through 2022 and beyond. Here are some snapshot findings from the new China Travel Market Report 2021-2025.
10 Asia Pacific Travel Statistics You May Have Missed This Week
1) -30.3%: Static Air Recovery in ASEAN
South East Asia’s scheduled air capacity stubbornly refuses to budge. This week, it sat at -30.3% compared to the same week in July 2019, according to OAG. The ongoing impact of China’s travel absence is at the core of ASEAN continuing to record the second weakest air capacity recovery of any region worldwide, after Southern Africa -35.3%, although South East Asia’s air market is more than 13 times larger.
2) 659,860 vs 650,520: Departures Beat Arrivals in Australia
Official visitor statistics often lack vital detail, so respect to Australia for clearly setting out its May 2022 figures (with excellent graphs). The headline May arrivals figure (which is all we get from some Tourism Ministries) was 650,520 - marking strong growth from 265,260 in January. June’s provisional stats are better: 736,650. Dig deeper, and in May, 375,370 of the 650,520 were short/long-term Australian resident returnees and 266,550 were short/long-term overseas visitors. The rest were “permanent arrivals.” May saw 659,860 departures from Australia, June 885,290.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
3) 873 Km: Thailand to Accelerate High-Speed Rail
China and Thailand this week committed to accelerate construction of a high-speed rail line that will connect the country with the China-Laos railway - thereby conjoining China, Thailand and Laos by an 873km train route. China wants Thailand to complete the two-phase track from the Thai capital Bangkok to the Laos border by 2028. The project has been, like most railway build-outs in the region, beset by delays.
4) 4-6 Million: Singapore Sets Arrivals Target
While South East Asian neighbours Thailand, Malaysia & Vietnam have revised 2022 visitor arrivals targets, Singapore stayed silent. Now, after recording 1.5 million arrivals in the first half of 2022, it has set a range of 4-6 million visitors for the full year. The broad range reflects unease about the strength of ASEAN’s travel demand recovery as global economic factors and concerns about new COVID-19 waves weigh heavily. The upper end of the 2022 target would roughly double the 2.7 million visitors who arrived - mostly in Jan/Feb - in 2020. It would also be Singapore’s lowest annual arrivals total (excluding 2020 & 2021) since 2003.
5) 140: Japanese Yen Nears Symbolic Low
Panic continues to envelop the Bank of Japan as the Yen slipped to a 24-year low against this US dollar this week. Japan’s currency has slid dramatically in 2022, and is nearing the 140 level to the USD, although Japan is reluctant to implement monetary tightening. Bad news, too, for Japanese airlines purchasing jet fuel in USD and the discretionary spending budgets of Japanese travellers overseas.
Source: Trading Economics (Friday 15 July, 4pm)
6) 2026: Cambodia Projects Long Tourism Recovery
Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism does not expect to equal 2019’s 6.6 million arrivals until 2026, or perhaps 2027. Cambodia is targeting 1 million visitors in 2022 (less than the 1.4 million that arrived - mostly in Jan/Feb - in 2020), and 2 million in 2023. It will launch a tourism push in 2023, when it will host the South East Asian Games.
7) 300: Thailand “Ready to Launch” Tourism Fee
No date has yet been set for the introduction of Thailand’s long-delayed THB300 Tourism Fee, but the Ministry of Tourism & Sports said this week it will be levied for all entrants to the country who are “non-Thai residents.” The Tourism Fee was promulgated in January, but has been repeatedly delayed since.
8) 8 Billion: India to Top China’s Population in 2023
Travel industry forecasters will note the demographic duel between India (1.412 billion in 2022) and China (1.426 billion) is shifting gears. “India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023,” says the fascinating new UN World Population Prospects report. The global population will hit 8 billion in November this year. The 2 most populous regions are Eastern & South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion (29% of the global population) and Central & Southern Asia with 2.1 billion (26%).
9) 41,000: South Korea Braces for Covid-19 Surge
South Korea has vowed to increase “quarantine inspections” at its gateway airports this summer as a new wave of Covid-19 infections commences. Daily new cases reached a 66-day high of 41,310 on 16 July.
10) 39: Total Covid-19 Vaccines
Covid-19 vaccine development has retreated from the news agenda, but “39 vaccines have been approved for use by at least one National Regulatory Authority,” says UNICEF this week. Eleven are on the UN Emergency Use list. One new candidate is under regulatory review, 31 are in Phase 3 trials and 249 are at a “preclinical stage.”
Charting Cambodia’s Aviation Recovery
Cambodia has spearheaded South East Asia’s removal of Covid-19 restrictions for visitors. Its 3 international airports handled 11.6 million passengers in 2019, and Cambodia is eager to revive its airline sector to support a tourism recovery.
On this week’s The South East Asia Travel Show, we chat with Stephen King, Chief Commercial Officer at Cambodia Airports, about progress in the first half of 2022.
Stephen discusses passenger traffic at the 3 gateways, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap & Sihanoukville, the impact of China’s absence from regional travel and efforts to attract more airlines and routes to Cambodia. We also discuss the key inbound markets, and the outlook for the rest of the year.
Listen to Charting Cambodia’s Aviation Recovery, with Stephen King, Cambodia Airports, here:
🎧 Website 🎧 Spotify 🎧 Apple Podcasts
Or search for The South East Asia Travel Show on any podcast platform.
And, that’s a wrap for Issue 90.
The newsletter (which is now published every 2 weeks) will return on 31 July.
Until then, find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, the Asia Travel Re:Set website and The South East Asia Travel Show.
Happy travels,
Gary
Great info!