Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) UK & Ireland is pleased to share results of their latest ‘PATA Polls’ – a series of short surveys where they ask their travel agent network to provide expert knowledge and valuable insight into a variety of topics and issues throughout the year.
The latest PATA Poll conducted this month (May 2023), focused on best selling PATA destinations following the recent announcement that Japan is now free of covid entry requirements’ (as of 29th April 2023) and its effect on holiday bookings.
Feedback from the travel agent poll revealed over half (53.85%) have seen an increase in enquiries and bookings for Japan since the beginning of May.Now travel to Japan is restriction free, a significant 76.92% of travel agents reported plans to proactively promote Japan holidays to their customers.
Yoshiro Shimoji, Chairman at Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) has projected the following visitor arrival numbers. “Visitors to Okinawa (domestic and international) during the Golden Week (29 April to 7 May) were 400,000 persons (YOY +2.9%). Total number of visitors from April to July is expected to reach 2,610,000 persons (YOY +40.2%).”
When asked which countries in the Asia Pacific region have been selling best in the last few weeks, agents named New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri lanka, Maldives, Laos and Japan as the most popular.
Commenting on the latest survey, Chairman of PATA UK & Ireland, Chris Crampton said: “We are so pleased so many Asia Pacific countries have lifted COVID-19 related entry requirements. Of our agents top selling destinations all have no entry rules making travel easy and flexible again. This is reflected in the increase in enquiries to the likes of Laos which are typically part of a multicentre Asia itinerary with Thailand. Sri Lanka and Maldives have also made a strong comeback as a popular honeymoon combination especially since the unrest in Sri Lanka has subsided.”
Comments are closed.