Annual Report on Asia-Pacific Tourism (2021)

This report is about the fourth priority area (sustainable tourism and economic growth), prepared by China, to collect and spread the development of APEC tourism within stakeholders. From 2011 to 2019, the inbound tourists of APEC before the COVID-19 saw a continuous increase. The international inbound tourists to APEC accounted for over 32% of global inbound tourists. The inbound tourists to four economies, The United States; China; Mexico; and Hong Kong, China, topped the list of inbound tourists for APEC economies all the time. By analyzing the tourism developments of the Asian, North American, Australian, and South American plates, it can be found that the inbound tourists to Asia rank the 1st place all the time and present a gradual rising trend, followed by the inbound tourists to North America that have a small decline since 2017, while the inbound tourists to Oceania and South America account for a small proportion of international inbound tourists to APEC. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the contribution of APEC tourism to global GDP has reduced by 49.1%. The jobs related to tourism have been reduced to 272 million from 334 million in 2019, reducing by 18.5%. In case the pandemic can be eliminated as soon as possible, and the APEC tourism can be restored to the level in 2019 by 2023, the annual overall growth rate after 2023 should at least reach 2.08% to the TWG goal of receiving 800 million international tourists in 2025, meaning more efforts will be made.