PolyU and PATA Launch Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2013-2017

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel and Tourism Management and PATA released their joint publication, the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2013-2017, on Thursday.

The annual and quarterly forecasts cover a five-year horizon (up from three) and include price elasticity variables for most of the destinations covered. The forecasts show that:

- Visitor arrivals to the Asia Pacific region will continue to grow with an average annual growth rate of 4.1% over the period 2013-2017 and reach 581 million by 2017.

- Northeast Asia will maintain a dominant position in the inbound market of Asia Pacific, and its market share will reach 53.52% by 2017.

- China will continue to be the top inbound destination in the Asia Pacific, peaking at 147.4 million visitors in 2017

- Visitor arrivals to Asia Pacific from China will exceed 100 million by 2015

- Cambodia, the Maldives, Chinese Taipei, Bhutan and Mongolia are the top five fastest growing destinations in terms of visitor arrivals over the period 2013-2017.

The forecasts aim to help destinations set strategy for the coming years by supporting the complete visitor economy in both long-term decision and policy making by predicting arrivals, tourism receipts and departures according to country/region of origins for 41 destinations.

Professor Kaye Chon/a>, Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said, “We are very pleased to be part of the new PATA NextGen forecasting initiative, as transferring our knowledge to practice has been high on our school's research agenda.”