India sets growth pace for February with strong arrivals: PATA
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The Pacific Asia Travel Association’s (PATA) figures for international visitor arrivals into Asia and the Pacific for the month of February show India setting the pace with string growth. South Asia as a whole continued to set the pace, with a gain of 15%. Two destinations involved in the hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India and Sri Lanka, recorded the fastest arrivals growth of 15% for the month. Arrivals to the Maldives (+13%) and Nepal (+12%) also grew strongly in February. As a whole, the region recorded a 5% growth year-on-year. PATA said February demand growth was to a certain degree impacted by the shift of the Lunar New Year from the middle of the month in 2010 to the first week of the month this year. Travel demand to Southeast Asia remained robust with arrivals to the sub-region growing by 10% year-on-year, with the majority of the destinations recording double-digit gains in arrivals, led by Cambodia (+22%), Myanmar (+29%) and Vietnam (+22%). Northeast Asia on the other hand registered a significantly slower growth of 3% for the month, but added 1.4-million more visitors. Said Kris Lim, Director, Strategic Intelligence Centre, PATA: “For the first two months of the year, inbound growth was 6%. Moderating growth was to be expected following last year’s impressive recovery. Going forward, economic fundamentals remain strong and the positive momentum is expected to continue but the aftermath of the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to have a dampening effect on travel demand in the short-term.”
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