Reports

While domestic tourism has rebounded, international travel in Asia-Pacific has yet to reach historical levels. As of July 2023, average monthly inter-national arrivals for key Asia-Pacific tourism destinations stood at just 80% of the levels registered in 2019. This indicates substantial room for improvement in the hotel sector, with a full recovery expected in 2024.

Outside of macroeconomic factors, airline capacity is the biggest obstacle to international travel’s full recovery. International Air Transit Association (IATA) data show that aircraft capacity in Asia-Pacific is expected to reach 86% of 2019 levels by the end of the year and return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024. The impact on specific markets varies, with out-bound aircraft seating capacity down -42.6% in Hong Kong from August 2023 to August 2019, -23.4% in Korea and -10.5% in Japan. However, China, which remains the largest outbound tourism source market in the region, had roughly 85 million aircraft seats available in August, a rise of 6.5% over the same period of 2019.