Travel Megatrends 2021: Asia Bulks Up Even as it Looks Inward
Nadia Sgaramella
Skift Take
There will be a stronger domestic and regional focus in the travel industry in 2025, and given that some of the world's biggest source markets will be in Asia (think China, India and Indonesia), Asia looks set to be the key beneficiary. But can the unbeatable beauty of Bryce Canyon in Utah, the pull of London's West End, or Parisian street life really keep Asians close to home for long?
It's 2025 and all the talk about Asia continuing to be the travel powerhouse has not only come true, but it has busted expectations.
Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, tourism regions that generated the highest arrivals’ growth in 2019, and welcomed 364 million and 64 million visitors, respectively, are well on the way to exceeding those levels by the end of 2025.
Recovery started in 2021, with China as the driving force. The Lunar New Year holiday that year turned out to be a golden week for mainland Chinese traveling overseas, just as National Day in October 2020 was a milestone for the recovery of domestic travel in China. Pent-up demand broke through its restraints thanks to vaccine availability and Covid-19 containment in key Asian destinations.
Around 100 million mainland Chinese traveled overseas in 2021 as the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute had predicted in November 2020. By 2022, th
