Archive:Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) - a statistical portrait - tourism

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Data from April and May 2016. No planned article update.

Highlights

France, Spain and China received the largest numbers of international tourists in 2014.

Arrivals of non-resident tourists at national borders, 2014
(million)
Source: Source: the World Tourism Organisation (World Tourism Data)

This article is part of a Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) — A statistical portrait based on Eurostat’s publication Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) — A statistical portrait.

It focuses on tourism data about the European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland in comparison with 21 Asian ASEM partners and covers key indicators concerning the number of tourist arrivals, top destinations and the origin of tourists and visitors.

The use of the term European ASEM partners in this article refers to the 28 Member States of the EU, Norway and Switzerland. The use of the term Asian ASEM partners in this article refers to the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 11 remaining ASEM partners referred to as Northeast and South Asia (NESA).

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Tourist arrivals

Tourists include people travelling for all reasons, including pleasure, business or visiting family. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) there were almost 1.1 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2013, among which 436 million were in the European ASEM partners (of which 423 million in the EU-28) and 207 million in the Asian ASEM partners. As such, the ASEM partners were the destination for close to three fifths of all of the world’s international tourists. Among the European ASEM partners, the five largest EU Member States (in terms of population) received, in 2012, the largest numbers of international tourists, followed by Austria and Greece (see Figure 1). China and the Russian Federation received the most international tourists among NESA partners, while Malaysia and Thailand were the biggest international destinations among ASEAN members.

Figure 1: Arrivals of non-resident tourists at national borders, 2014
(million)
Source: Source: the World Tourism Organisation (World Tourism Data)

Tourist arrivals in Europe from large NESA countries

Table 1 looks at the share of tourists from a selection of NESA countries among all of the tourists arriving at hotels and similar establishments in the EU-28 in 2014. Collectively, 29 million tourists from the five selected partners stayed in such accommodation, a 4.1 % share of the 696 million tourist arrivals from all over the world. Among these, the largest number, some 10 million tourists, were from the only Asian ASEM partner with a land border to the EU, namely the Russian Federation. The number of tourist arrivals in the EU from China (including Hong Kong) has grown rapidly in recent years and by 2014 these numbered 7.4 million, having overtaken the 5.2 million arrivals from Japan.

Table 1 shows the destination of tourist arrivals in the 10 European ASEM partners with the highest number of arrivals from these five NESA countries: the nine EU Member States among them collectively hosted around four fifths of the tourist arrivals in the EU-28, both in terms of all arrivals and from the five selected NESA countries.

Although Germany and France boasted a greater number of overall tourist arrivals in hotels and similar establishments, Italy was the leading destination for tourists from the five selected NESA countries. None of the five partners dominated, although the shares of arrivals in Italy from Japan and China were above the average for the EU-28 as a whole, while the share from the Russian Federation was notably lower. Among these five NESA countries, the share of tourists from the Russian Federation was particularly high in Greece and the Czech Republic. The share from China was highest in Switzerland, accounting for more than half (54.0 %) of the total number of arrivals in hotels and similar establishments from these five NESA countries, a share that was almost matched by Australian arrivals in the United Kingdom (53.6 % in 2013).

Table 1: Top European ASEM partners as destinations for tourist arrivals from selected Asian ASEM partners, 2014 (¹)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_arnraw)

Tourist arrivals in the Asian ASEM partners

Figures 2–4 look at inbound tourism for a selection of Asian ASEM partners showing arrivals from EU Member States; in some cases data are based on nationality rather than residence. The various parts of Figures 2–4 are based on national data for the arrivals of visitors/tourists. Although visitors include same-day visitors as well as tourists (the latter staying at least one night), for EU-28 tourists in Asian ASEM partners the distinction between visitors and tourists is likely to be very small.

Figure 2 looks at arrivals in 2015 for four ASEAN countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia (2014 data). For all of these destinations, the largest number of tourists (from the EU-28 Member States) came from the United Kingdom, followed in second and third places by France and Germany. The Netherlands was the fourth largest origin for three of the countries shown, the exception being Thailand where there were more Swedish and Italian arrivals.

Figure 2: Visitor or tourist arrivals from selected EU Member States in selected ASEAN members, 2015 (¹)
(thousands)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_arnraw)Source: Department of Tourism (Thailand), Tourism Malaysia, Singapore Tourism Board and Statistics Indonesia

Figure 3 shows arrivals data for 2015 for one more ASEAN country, Vietnam, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Mongolia (2014 data). For three of the four destinations shown, the largest number of tourists (from the EU-28 Member States) was again from the United Kingdom, the exception being Mongolia where there were more German and French tourists. For Australia, and to a lesser extent New Zealand, the difference between the number of arrivals from the United Kingdom and the next largest EU Member State (Germany) was particularly large. By contrast, in Vietnam the number of arrivals from second placed France was only marginally lower than the number from the United Kingdom. The relatively high number of arrivals in Australia from Ireland can also be noted.

Figure 3: Visitor or tourist arrivals from selected EU Member States in selected ASEAN members and NESA countries, 2015 (¹)
(thousands)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_arnraw)Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Tourism Australia, Statistics New Zealand and Ulaanbaatar Tourism Department (Mongolia)

Figure 4 provides data based on nationality for four of the largest NESA countries: the Russian Federation (2013 data), India (2014 data), China (data for January to September 2015) and Japan (2015 data). For three of the four destinations shown a similar situation can be seen as in Figures 2–3, namely, the largest numbers of arrivals were German, French or British visitors/tourists. The only exception was the Russian Federation, where the highest numbers among citizens from EU Member States were Polish and Finnish tourists, followed by Germans and citizens of the three Baltic Member States.

Figure 4: Visitor or tourist arrivals from citizens of selected EU Member States in selected NESA countries, 2015 (¹)
(thousands)
Source: Eurostat (tour_occ_arnraw)Source: Federal Agency for Tourism (Russian Federation), Government of India (Ministry of tourism), China National Tourism Administration and Japan National Tourism Organization

Source data for tables and graphs

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Data sources

The indicators presented are often compiled according to international — sometimes global — standards. Although most data are based on international concepts and definitions there may be certain discrepancies in the methods used to compile the data.

Some of the indicators presented for the EU (and its Member States), Norway and Switzerland have been drawn from Eurobase, Eurostat’s online database, while global tourism data come from the WTO.

For the Asian ASEM partners, the data presented have been extracted from the WTO and from a range of national sources.

For many of the indicators, multiple international statistical sources are available, each with their own policies and practices concerning data management (for example, concerning data validation, the correction of errors, the estimation of missing data, and the frequency of updating). In general, attempts have been made to use only one source for each indicator in order to provide a comparable analysis between the partners.

Aggregates for ASEM, the European ASEM partners and the Asian ASEM partners have been compiled from the data for individual partners as indicated above. As such, they may combine data from Eurostat and international sources.

Context

The ASEM partners include many major tourist destinations: according to data from the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), seven of the partners — France, Spain, China, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation — were among the world’s top 10 international destinations in 2014, alongside the United States, Turkey and Mexico. Tourism has the potential to contribute towards employment and economic growth, especially in rural, peripheral or less-developed areas.