Tourist arrivals in Asia grow faster: ADB report

Tourist arrivals in Asia grew faster than anywhere else in the world, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said on Nov 13.

The report, titled The Asian Economic Integration Report 2019/2020: Demographic Change, Productivity, and the Role of Technology, also disclosed that international tourism receipts hitting a record 368 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.

"Inbound tourists from both Asia (up by 10.3 percent from 2016) and non-Asia (up by 8.2 percent) contributed to the high growth in Asian tourism," the report said.

It says Asia attracted 23.4 percent or 310.7 million tourists of global tourist arrivals in 2017, up from 20.5 percent or 195.4 million recorded in 2010.

"Intraregional tourists accounted for nearly 80 percent of tourists to Asia," the report says.

Outside Asia, the report says the United States and Russia had the largest number of tourists to the region.

According to the report, China, Japan, and Thailand were the most popular destinations for Asian tourists.