Madrid : UNWTO's Member States came together for the 35th meeting of its joint Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia to assess the major challenges to tourism development in the region for the years ahead.

UNWTO's Members from Asia and the Pacific met as recovery from the impacts of the pandemic on tourism in the region steadily accelerates.

According to UNWTO data, worldwide, twice as many people travelled internationally in the first three months of 2023 than in the same period of 2022, taking global tourism back to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

For Asia and the Pacific, however, international arrivals got back to 54 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the quarter.

Recovery across the region is expected to accelerate following the re-opening of China to tourism. China was the world's biggest tourism source market in 2019.

In line with UNWTO's statutory obligations, Members from East Asia and the Pacific nominated China, Indonesia, Japan and Republic of Korea to represent the region on the UNWTO Executive Council.

The two Commi-ssions for East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia also agreed that:

The 36th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and the UNWTO Commission for South Asia will be held in Cebu, Philippines in 2024.

World Tourism Day 2025, to be held around the theme of "Tourism and Sustainable Transformation" will be hosted by Malaysia.