India outperforms as visitor forecasts receive upgrades

The forecast for Asia-Pacific tourism has been upgraded thanks to further easing of travel restrictions after an improvement in the viral situation and vaccine coverage across destinations, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata).

The latest edition of visitor forecasts for 2022-24 in Asia-Pacific projected reaching 36.2% of 2019 levels this year, an increase from the forecast of 32.6% in April, said Haiyan Song, associate dean at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

By 2024, the number of tourists to the region will recover to 832 million in a best-case scenario, 694 million in a base-case scenario, and 510 million in a worst-case scenario.

“Further recovery has been derailed by tight border controls in Northeast Asia, particularly in China, which is likely to remain closed until 2023,” said Mr Song at…