'Tourism in Southeast Asia is catching up'
Southeast Asia tourism has finally been released from the Covid-19 travel restrictions. Many countries open their doors and hope for a full plane with passengers who want to go on holiday again after two years.
While the region is lagging behind other destinations such as North America and Europe, which have previously lifted travel restrictions, it appears to be moving in the right direction. Flight bookings are rising as popular tourist destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are once again allowing quarantine-free access for vaccinated travelers.
“April was a very important month for Southeast Asia,” said Gary Bowerman, director of travel and tourism research firm Check-in Asia. “The optimism is back, people are now thinking and talking about travel as before. Just look at the search volumes in Google.”
According to data from Maybank Investment Bank, Google searches related to travel to Singapore have increased, particularly from neighboring Malaysia, but also from Indonesia, India and Australia. Searches have increased by about 20% since the last week of March.
Air passenger traffic to Singapore rose 31% from pre-Covid levels after most travel restrictions on fully vaccinated individuals were lifted at the beginning of the month, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Flight reservations to Singapore jumped to 23% of pre-virus levels in the week of March 68, as the government said it was lifting most of its pandemic-related restrictions, according to travel data company ForwardKeys. That is an increase from 55% the week before.
In Thailand, where international tourism contributes about 15% to gross domestic product, the number of foreign visitors rose 38% in March after easing requirements for testing and travel medical insurance, the tourism ministry said. Thailand has further relaxed the entry rules for vaccinated travelers from May 1. The number of visitors to Thailand in April exceeded 360.000, according to the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Travelers from Singapore were the largest group, followed by the United Kingdom, India, Germany and Australia.
The Thai government expects the number of tourists to reach 6,1 million this year (in 2021 there were 427.869). In 2019, Thailand could welcome another 40 million tourists.
Source: Bangkok Post – Bloomberg
Of course you can juggle with numbers and draw fantastic conclusions.
“The Thai government expects the number of tourists to reach 6,1 million this year (in 2021 there were 427.869) In 2019, Thailand could welcome another 40 million tourists.”
If you now only look at the development of 2021 and 2022, tourism to Thailand is increasing by a FANTASTIC 1.325 percent. More than 1000% in 1 year.
The number of tourists in 2021, compared to 2019, was a drop of no less than 9.200 percent. Yes, really, over 9000 percent less.
In short: forget all those percentages……………….
9 thousand percent decrease? Then gigantic more people* would have left than arrived, because 100% decrease = zero. From 40 million to 0,42 million border crossings/tourists is -98,95%. For a clear picture, a combination of absolute numbers and stating the growth percentage is very insightful. Or just a nice graph over the past few years, saves a paragraph full of numbers...
* negative 9 thousand percent of 40 million = -3.600.000.000 or -3,6 billion. 🙂