Asia's Tourism Double-digit Growth

It wasn't surprising to read about "Asia's Tourism Boom" in The Straits Times, the original article by Adrian Addison (AFP). In fact we expected it. The question was: "Increase by how much?"

In a nutshell, more Asians are traveling within Asia. The Chinese and the Indians were among the largest groups of traveller and holiday makers in the region.

"Over 70 million people went to Southeast Asia, 12 percent up on 2009, with Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines all ratcheting up record growth."

Asia's Tourism Growth in 2010

What was surprising is the who's who in the top positions. Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Taiwan in the top 3 position was a surprise to me. I expected Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Here's a chart taken from The Straits Times article:

It was interesting to note that:

"Indian travellers to Singapore, for example, travel in an average group size of four against an overall average of 2.9 people and spend on average 5.8 days there against a total average of 4.0 days."

Now, we know why Mustafa Singapore is making good business.