Greater China tipped to remain atop rankings of Asia-bound tourists

The major international visitor-generating markets will be driven by China in Asia, and the US and Mexico in the Americas. Greater China – comprising mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau – is expected to generate more than 261 million international arrivals to the 39 Asia Pacific destinations covered in a report. This represents an annual growth rate of 7.9 percent year on year and an incremental increase in absolute volume of over 19 million arrivals.
While annual percentage growth from Greater China into Asia will expand by a little under the average (7.8 per cent), the destinations of Asia will capture 95 per cent of the volume increase between 2016 and 2017 from these origin markets. The Americas will capture around 3.4 per cent of that volume increase and the Pacific the remaining 1.6 per cent.
Arrivals from Europe and Africa will each grow by 3.5 per cent in 2017 year on year. While Africa is expected to generate just over three million arrivals in total during 2017, Europe will generate around 67.7 million arrivals to the destinations of Asia Pacific in that year.
From within the European origin markets, Russia is expected to deliver the largest volume of additional arrivals into Asia Pacific in 2017, adding over 373,000 additional arrivals between 2016 and 2017 and doubling its collective inbound count to almost five million in that latter year. The United Kingdom and Germany, however, remain the principal generators of arrivals from Europe, delivering 14.9 million and 11.3 million arrivals respectively into Asia Pacific in 2017. France will deliver 7.1 million arrivals in 2017, ahead of Russia.
Australia is by far the largest generator of international arrivals from the Pacific into Asia Pacific destinations in 2017, delivering over 12 million arrivals during the course of the year, close to 620,000 more than in 2016.
By 2021 it will still be Greater China that generates the largest number of international arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations, with mainland China and Hong Kong specifically generating 164.6 million and 131.6 million arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations respectively in that year. 
They will be followed by the US and South Korea which are expected to generate 47.9 million and 29.7 million arrivals respectively. Canada will rank fifth as an origin market, generating 25.4 million arrivals in 2021.
The strongest growth in additional arrivals between 2016 and 2021 will come from – in order of volume increase – mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, the US and Russia. Together these five origin markets will deliver 383 million international arrivals into Asia Pacific destinations in 2021, an increase of more than 112 million over the volume delivered in 2016.
Arrivals from the Americas are expected to expand with an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 2.3 per cent per annum, between 2016 and 2021, while Europe will grow by 3.1 per cent per annum. While these rates are lower than the overall AAGR of 5 per cent, they nevertheless contribute to a substantial volume of arrivals into Asia Pacific, generating over 116 million and 76 million arrivals respectively in 2021.
These lower than average AAGRs however mean that, in relative terms, the share of foreign arrivals from the Americas and Europe will decline from 17.5 per cent to 15.0 per cent in the case of the Americas and from 11 per cent to 10.2 per cent in the case of Europe.