Asia Leads Growing Global Tourist Industry

Figures released by the IPK International Consulting Group showed that the number of outbound trips reached record levels in what was a fantastic year for global tourism. With the world looking for good economic news, JPK’s date is certainly a welcome surprise for many.

Singapore is just one of many Asia destinations seeing record numbers of tourists. Image courtesy panhala.net

The firms said that the number of outbound trips last year rose to 711 million, a staggering 7% increase on the year before and sets an all-time record.

And the good news for tourism doesn’t stop there as the consultancy firm predicts further rises in 2011. The emerging tourism markets of Asia and Africa are set to lead the way, with predicted growth measuring 10% and 7% expected in both continents. Latin America is also expected to see strong growth at around 5% on last years’ numbers.

Africa is also seeing record numbers of visitors. Courtesy of meriyatrra.com

However, growth is predicted to be much slower in North America and Europe’s favorite travel destinations, with predictions expecting a growth of just 1% to 2%.

Traditional holiday destinations such as Spain are seeing much slower growth. Courtesy of journyl.com

The news that Asia is fast becoming the world’s favorite place to soak up the sun and surf was backed up by another forecast from the Pacific Asia Travel Association, which predicted that Asia will be the world travel industry’s biggest growth area over the next three years. In total, PATA forecast that around 76 million people will arrive in Asia each year by 2013.

Surprisingly, Northeast Asian destinations like China are seeing an increase in the number of tourists from the Middle East and South Asia. Courtesy of Puretravel.com

It said that Southeast Asia will be the fastest growing region at 8%, with South Asia and Northeast Asia following closely behind at 7.5% and 7% respectively.

Most of these new arrivals will be the traditional visitors from Europe and North America, but rather from the Middle East, while many visitors from South and Central Asia are expected to visit Northeast Asia.

 Source = argophilia