PATA's Tourism Recovery Scenarios for Asia Pacific
Skift Take
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) laid out tourism recovery scenarios for the Asia Pacific, predicting a slow recovery with 2024 arrivals still 31% below 2019 levels, and a range of outcomes for Thailand by 2026.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association had a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club Thailand to discuss the future of tourism in Asia Pacific. The PATA Travel Mart 2024 began at the Queen Sirikit Conference & Exhibition Center in Bangkok, so PATA did have a focus on Thailand. PATA continues to give three recovery scenarios for tourism in APAC – mild, medium and severe. The mild scenario has a strong recovery, with international tourist arrivals surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Medium includes steady growth with recovery exceeding pre-crisis benchmarks, while the severe scenario suggested a slower path, with recovery to 2019 levels not happening until 2026. PATA said they still believe 2024 will be -31% below 2019 levels. For Thailand PATA's range goes from 50.65 million arrivals under the mild scenario to only 33 million under the severe in a 2026 scenario. That would be 126% of 2019 for mild, 106% for medium and only 83% of 2019 arrivals for severe.
