Fiji Visitor Arrivals in July 2010

Maintaining what is shaping up to be Fiji tourism?s best ever year for international visitation, the destination has set a new four-year record for visitor arrivals for a month of July.

Figures released by Fiji?s Department of Information show the destination welcomed more than 66,500 visitors across the month of July 2010, the result eclipsing the best ever July record set in 2006 ? 59,645 - by more than 11%.

The strong performance takes Fiji?s total visitor arrivals for the seven month period January to July to 339,056.

This in itself represents a 19% increase over the 283,560 total achieved in 2009.

Australian visitor figures once again topped the listings with close to 1,000 Australians visiting every day throughout July to help chalk up another new Australian monthly record for the destination.

The 29,436 Australian total recorded for the month represented a 19% increase on the 24,729 figure achieved for the same period in 2009.

New Zealand visitor intake again showed positive growth with a total of 13,949 Kiwis visiting across the month, that figure representing a 5.8% growth over the 13,181 achieved for the same month in 2009.

The positive Australia and New Zealand results were reflected across all of Fiji?s main markets including the Americas.

US figures increased by 5% while Canadian visitor arrivals showed positive growth for the first time this year with numbers increasing by 5%.

Visitor arrivals from China achieved a massive 149% increase.

Taiwan business grew by 45% while visitor arrivals from India climbed by 15%.

Traffic from the UK/Europe remained steady and stayed positive with a 0.7% increase in traffic.

Tourism Fiji CEO Josefa Tuamoto said the destination was bracing itself for a very strong result from the region in August, the traditional holiday and travel month for much of the northern hemisphere.

See also: Fiji Visitor Arrivals in June 2010

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Visitor Arrivals to Asia Pacific in July 2010

According to preliminary data from PATA, international visitor arrivals to Asia Pacific in July 2010 grew 15% year-on-year. For the first seven months of 2010, international visitor arrivals to the region grew by 12% year-on-year.

Arrivals to the Northeast Asia sub-region (excluding Mongolia) expanded by 15% for the month, slightly slower than the robust growth of 19% seen in May and June. Japan led the way for the sub-region, with arrivals growth of 39% for the month.

The revival of inbound tourism to Japan has been impressive, following a year-to-date expansion of 36% for the first seven months of the year. This robust growth has helped the destination to inch closer to the pre-recession level of 2008, and Japan could come very close to equalling the year-to-date peak in either August or September of this year.

Strong demand growth was also seen for Hong Kong SAR (+32%), Korea ROK (+24%), Chinese Taipei (+23%), and Macau SAR (+23%). China saw its overall arrivals, including traffic from Hong Kong and Macau , grow by 7% in July, with foreign arrivals growing much more strongly at 19%. Overall, international visitor arrivals to Northeast Asia recorded a growth of 12% for the first seven months of 2010.

Growth in international arrivals to Southeast Asia (excluding Laos and the Philippines) also remained strong at 15% in July, boosted by double-digit growth in arrivals to Vietnam (+51%), Singapore (+24%), Thailand (+14%) and Indonesia (+11%). Significantly for Thailand , this was the first month of positive growth in arrivals for three consecutive months and heralds a positive scenario as it heads into the traditionally ?high? season. The smaller destinations of Myanmar (+40%) and Cambodia (+22%) also recorded significant growth in July. For the first seven months of the year, arrivals to the Southeast Asia bloc increased by 13% year-on-year.

Arrivals to the destinations that make up South Asia (excluding Bhutan and Pakistan) grew by 11% for the month of July, comparatively slower than the average 15% growth seen in the first six months of the year but strong nevertheless. International arrivals to India grew only slowly at four per cent, however, arrivals to Sri Lanka , the Maldives and Nepal continued to record impressive growth rates of 50%, 29% and 26% respectively. During the January-to-July 2010 period, international visitor arrivals to the sub-region rose by 14%.

In the Pacific (excluding Fiji, Niue, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), international arrivals continued to gain momentum after suffering through the ash cloud related slumps of April. Following a strong 10% expansion in June, arrivals to the sub-region posted double-digit growth of 10% in July. Australia , with 11% growth for the month, led the sub-region?s strong performance. While weak economic sentiment continues to negatively impact travel from Europe and the Americas to Australia , arrivals from Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia picked up strongly. Growth in arrivals to New Zealand was moderate at 4% while most of the smaller destinations showed positive growth in July. Overall, the sub-region recorded an average growth rate of 5% for the first seven months of the year.

Regions Include (unless noted otherwise)

Northeast Asia = China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Korea (ROK), Macau SAR and Mongolia
Southeast Asia = Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
South Asia = Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
The Pacific = Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Marianas, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu

Some areas are excluded from the statistics as no data was available at time of reporting.

See also: Singapore Visitor Arrivals in July 2010 and Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in July 2010

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Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in September 2010

Hong Kong recorded a total of 2,728,107 visitor arrivals in September 2010, 21.2% more than the in September 2009. Cumulatively, arrivals in the first three quarters of 2010 reached 26,175,950, which is a 23.7%-increase year-on-year.

In September 2010, Mainland arrivals increased by 22.7% to more than 1.62 million, driving further gain in overall visitor arrivals. Such momentum of growth, which sustained after the summer holidays, showed that since the implementation of measures under the Individual Visit Scheme in Shenzhen, Mainland visitors no longer travel to Hong Kong only during the peak travel seasons and festive holidays, but that they also come for consumption visits over the weekends.

For short-haul markets, expanded flight capacity between Hong Kong and South and Southeast Asia brought along remarkable growth in arrivals from these markets, which increased by 20.3% compared to September 2009.

As for North Asia, appreciation of the WON currency continued to stimulate travel among South Koreans, causing arrivals from the country to more than double (+106.9%) and overall arrivals from North Asia to rise by 20.4% year-on-year. Arrivals from Taiwan also grew by 14.8%, reflecting an increasing number of vacation travellers from the island.

Further away, double-digit growth was registered in all three regional long-haul markets, with a satisfactory increase of 18.5% in overall long-haul arrivals. In particular, North American arrivals went up by more than 20%, indicating a growing number of both business and vacation travellers as the economy stabilises.

For emerging markets, benefitting from such favourable factors as economic improvements and expanded flight capacity, continual growth was registered in arrivals from Russia (+107.2%) and the Middle East (+31.7%). In India, the country?s fast-growing economy has led to strong demand for outbound travel, especially among both family and business segments, causing overall arrivals to Hong Kong to increase by 27.7% in September 2010.

In September 2010, overnight visitor arrivals to Hong Kong totalled 1.44 million, representing 53% of the total arrival figure and a 17.6%-increase from the 2009 figure. Most key market regions, especially Taiwan (+28.4%) and the Americas (+26.4), showed prominent growth in overnight visitor arrivals.

For the first three quarters of 2010, overnight visitor arrivals cumulated to 14.71 million. This number represents 56.2% of all visitor arrivals in the same period and is 21.8% more than the figure last year.

See also: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in September 2009, Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in September 2008 and Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in August 2010

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