Growing Together: Economic Integration for an Inclusive and - escap

FIGURE TITLE
II.6. Exports of commercial services and merchandise, Asia-Pacific, 2000-2010
Source: ESCAP based on WTO and UNCTAD WTO International Trade Statistics database (accessed 12 April 2012).
of Korea, the Russian Federation, Singapore
and Hong Kong, China, report exports and
imports of commercial services with a selected
number of trading partners. Table II.5 shows
that in 2008, these six economies export, on
average, 34.8 per cent of their commercial
services to trading partners within the region.
That year, Australia; Hong Kong, China; and
the Republic of Korea sent more than 40 per
cent of their commercial services exports to
other countries in the region. On the other
end, the Russian Federation sent only 5 per
cent of its commercial services exports to the
region. 11 Data on imports are qualitatively
similar to those on exports, although the
average value of imports of the six reporting
economies originated in the region is lower, at
28.7 per cent.
Tourism services
As mentioned above, travel is the type of
commercial service that expanded the fastest
in Asia and the Pacific over the last decade. It is
a major industry with the potential to generate
millions of jobs and support economic growth.
According to the United Nations World
Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Asia and
the Pacific, currently ranked second among
the world’s regions in terms of international
tourist receipts, recorded a record number
of tourist arrivals in 2011 of 216 million or a 6
per cent increase from the year before. 12 The
dynamism of the travel industry in the region
is partly the result of the increasing purchasing
power of its emerging middle class, which can
increasingly afford the expense of travelling
to other countries for tourism.
Table II.6 shows selected subregions and
countries of origin for the 10 largest tourism
markets in Asia and the Pacific. 13 Overall,
almost two thirds of the tourism arrivals to
these countries originate from within the
region, and more than 50 per cent originate
from South-East Asia and East and North-East
Asia. Moreover, in seven of the ten countries,
arrivals originating in the region represent
70 per cent or more of the total arrivals. It
is expected that as the region continues to
prosper, intraregional tourism will increase at
30