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TraXasia, a leading cross-border tourism advertising specialist offering comprehensive, data-driven reports on the fast-growing tourism sector in key Asian economies, unreviled the tourist trend in Q4 2020.

Tourism is one of the most important economic drivers in Southeast Asia, benefiting from the rising trend of inbound tourism over the recent years. Tourism looks set to grow in this region as short-haul travel will be the preferred safe option in the wake of recovery from the global pandemic outbreak.

Contribution Tourism Revenue Foreign Spending Inbound
2019 of GDP (Unit in U$ bn)  (Unit in U$ bn) Contribution
Maldives 66.1% 3.3 3.2 96.8%
Macau 72.0% 40.7 37.4 91.9%
Hong Kong 17.6% 65.2 45.4 69.6%
Thailand 21.9% 114.9 73.3 63.8%
Taiwan 4.4% 26.8 15.6 58.3%
Singapore 10.0% 35.5 20.7 58.3%
Cambodia 32.7% 8.5 4.9 57.5%
South Korea 2.8% 46.4 20.5 44.1%
Vietnam 9.1% 23.5 10.3 43.7%
Malaysia 13.3% 49.3 20.6 41.9%
Indonesia 6.1% 66.7 16.2 24.3%
Japan 7.5% 375.4 44.7 11.9%
India 9.3% 268.3 30.8 11.5%
Philippines 24.6% 86.5 9 10.4%
Mainland China 10.9% 1593.3 132.9 8.3%

Over 637 million Chinese tourists hit the road during the Golden Week holidays in early October, while hotel booking platform Ctrip said tourism sector has recovered to 70 to 80% of pre-pandemic levels. This underlines the pent-up demand for travel and appetite for overseas holidays when borders reopen.

41% of Gen-Z tourists said they are ready to travel overseas, with 51% of them wishing to splurge on shopping during travel. China is one the biggest contributors of inbound tourism, accounting for almost 1/5 of the world’s international tourism, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

As countries are in talks to arrange travel bubbles, other top travel destinations that are expected to show recovering in Q4 include:

a)       Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Danang

b)       Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu

c)       Thailand: Bangkok, Phuket, Chiangmai

Meanwhile, Southeast Asia is also seeing an increasing demand from South Korean tourists who made up the second largest source of inbound tourism after China. South Korean tourists prefer independent travel over group tour, with nature and relaxation activities top on their itinerary.