Tourist arrivals into the Asia-Pacific region are tipped to reach around 50% of pre-COVID levels in 2023, only fully recovering in 2025 or 2026 according to estimates from Oxford Economics.
The tourism outlook formed part of a roundtable hosted this week by online travel agency booking.com, and reported by Bloomberg, with the director of economic consulting for Oxford Economics Asia, James Lambert, noting that APAC still lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to COVID recovery.
“Globally, we’re registering a very significant recovery from the depths of Covid but in APAC still, it’s behind that curve,” Lambert said.
“The global inflationary environment is a risk in terms of how much people are willing to spend.”
Lambert also noted that Asia-Pacific economies still rely too heavily on Chinese tourists who have been slow to return since China reopened on 8 January. Chinese tourists comprised around a quarter of regional tourist arrivals in 2019.
According to booking.com, a recent online survey of 24,179 respondents from 32 countries and territories revealed most travelers want something different from their leisure travel than pre-COVID.
Of those surveyed, 64% prefer one or two longer breaks a year rather than several shorter ones, while 67% want their breaks to be completely work free and 53% keen on mind and wellness getaways. Another 57% want their trips to be an escape from reality.
