Sustainable Tourism Export Development Asia

Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the world. The number of international arrivals grew from 25 million in 1950 to 1 billion in 2012, and is expected to further increase annually by 3.3% until 2030. This represents 43 million more international tourist arrivals every year, reaching a total of 1.8 billion arrivals by 2030. Tourism exports account for as much as 30% of the world’s exports of commercial services – 6% of the overall exports of goods and services. In 2011, the exports from tourism totalled US$ 1.2 trillion, up from US$ 928 billion in 2010 (+3.9% in real terms), setting new records in most destinations despite economic challenges in many source markets like Europe.

Asia Pacific accounts for 22% of the world share of tourist arrivals. For the first time ever, inbound tourism arrivals in Asia and the Pacific surpassed 200 million in 2010. The relative share of inbound tourist arrivals in Asia-Pacific is expected to continue to grow in a much faster rate than in any other regions in the world. Growth trend scenarios by the United World Tourism Organization predict that in 2030, Asia-Pacific will receive approximately 500 million tourists, comprising then a third of all international tourist arrivals – nearly equal to the market share of Europe.

In spite of these impressive growth figures, sustainability remains a critical bottleneck of the sector. The explosive growth of the sector has often been haphazard. Unplanned and unregulated developments often came at considerable economic, socio-cultural and environmental costs, such as pollution, inflation of local economies, resource shortages (water), commodification of local cultures etc. Sustainable development principles need to be promoted and integrated into business development models in order to safeguard the long term profitability of the sector. There is a clear need for an integrated tourism development approach that links poverty reduction with sustainability.

Europe is currently still the world’s largest source region, generating over half of the international arrivals worldwide. Despite the continuing economic uncertainty in Europe, the number of EU outbound travellers is still growing. Between 2001 and 2011, the outbound markets in Europe have shown a continuous growth of 2-2.5% annually, and the market is expected to continue to grow. EU tourists are an attractive target group for Asia, either as a focus market, or as part of a market diversification strategy to decrease or spread economic risks. In addition, there is a fast growing regional market, consisting of a fast growing middle and upper class from e.g. China and India that tour operators could tap.