ASEAN Tourism: The Slow Path to Recovery

Ongoing challenges hamper the recovery in the region’s tourism sector, resulting in a
modest 66% recovery in the first half of 2023, following a relatively lackluster 30%
recovery in 2022.

During the first half of 2023, approximately 46.5 million visitors travelled to ASEAN, with
around 43% originating from the region, making it a challenging task to reach the pre-
pandemic level of 143.6 million arrival by the end of the years. As for tourism receipts,
they only reached US$ 39.77 billion in 2022, compared to US$ 137.7 billion recorded in
2019.
Visitor Arrivals Tourism Receipt
(in million person) Total Visitor Arrivals 137,743.5 (in million US$)
Intra-ASEAN Visitor Arrivals
143.6 + 626.2%
2022/2021

51.7 46.5
20.0 39,775.0

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023* 2019 2020 2021 2022

Visitor Arrivals by ASEAN Member States, % change over 2019

Brunei
Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao PDR Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Viet Nam ASEAN
0

-22.7 -24.9
-50 -32.7 -31.4 -34.6 -32.6 -34.8 -34.3 -34.3

-65.8
-100 -85.1
2020 2021 2022 Jan-Jun 2023*

Cambodia and Lao PDR recorded the Who’s Visiting ASEAN in 2023?
highest recovery at 77% and 75%,
respectively. Meanwhile, Myanmar and
Brunei Darussalam reported the lowest EU ROK
3.20 3.78
recoveries at 15% and 34%, respectively. USA
China
3.79
The remaining ASEAN Member States 2.04
posted recoveries ranging from 65 to
69%.
Nevertheless, ASEAN tourism AUS
recovery is expected to continue 1.99

in the second-half of the year. (in million person)

According to UNWTO’s projection,
The largest source of non-ASEAN visitors to
international tourist arrivals could
the region in the first-half of 2023 was China,
reach 80% to 95% of pre-pandemic accounting for 8.2% of all arrivals, followed
levels in 20231. closely by the Republic of Korea and EU,
Notes: contributing 8.1% and 6.9%, respectively.
• data is preliminary; 2023 data is only from Jan-June
1 UNWTO, 2023. World Tourism Barometer, Volume 21, Issue 1.