Will Vietnam Overtake Thailand as Asian Playground for Russians?
Photo Credit: Anam Villas, Nha Trang, Vietnam, a member of Worldhotels. Worldhotels
Skift Take
Europe is the top growing source for Asia-Pacific, and it’s not because of growth from Asia’s traditional European markets such as the United Kingdom. It’s because of a huge spike in Russian arrivals. And Vietnam benefits.
Russian arrivals to the Asia-Pacific region are soaring on the back of substantial increases in air seat capacity, especially to Vietnam and Thailand.
From May 2018 to April 2019, Russian arrivals to Asia-Pacific rose 54.5 percent, far outstripping total international arrivals growth to the region of 3.8 percent, according to ForwardKeys.
This makes Europe the top growing source for Asia-Pacific, up 6.3 percent year on year, followed by the Americas, up 4.2 percent, and Asia-Pacific, up 3.9 percent, the analytics firm said. Arrivals from the Middle East and Africa to the Asia-Pacific dropped 1.5 percent during the period.
The huge spike in Russian travelers is propelled by a doubling of direct flights from Russia to Asia-Pacific, with seat capacity increasing by 38 percent overall, according to ForwardKeys’ vice president, insights, Olivier Ponti.
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