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Asia visitor flows, first half of 2026

Updated 2026-08-29 — a standing page, refreshed as new figures are published

Twelve markets, laid out west to east, and every visitor flow between them that has a published half-year figure. Filled circles are destinations — the six countries PacificAir covers — sized by the visitors they received between January and June 2026, blue where arrivals grew against 2025 and orange where they fell. Hollow markers are origin markets: this dataset records no arrivals total for them, only the visitors they send.

Arc width is proportional to the size of the flow. Hover, tap or arrow-key onto any market to isolate it and list every reported flow into and out of it. Switch to Change vs 2025 to size the destinations by how far they moved rather than by how many people they received.

Thailand16.21mMalaysia21.12mSingaporesourceCambodiasourceVietnam12.30mIndonesia7.45mPhilippines3.16mHong KongsourceTaiwan4.29mSouth KoreasourceJapan21.10mUnited Statessource
Destination, arrivals growing Destination, arrivals falling Origin market only West to east. Arc width is proportional to the reported flow; a dashed arc is ranked but unpublished.
Arrivals by destination, January to June 2026.
CountryArrivals (millions)Change vs 2025
Malaysia21.12+2.5%
Japan21.10-2.0%
Thailand16.21-3.1%
Vietnam12.30+14.9%
Indonesia7.45+5.7%
Taiwan4.29+2.3%
Philippines3.16+5.4%
The flows drawn on the diagram — all January to June 2026, so the arc widths are comparable.
FlowReported
South Korea → Japanabout 5.7 million in the half-year, up 18.6%
Taiwan → Japan3,972,200 in the half-year, up 20.9%
South Korea → Vietnam2.16 million in the half-year
Malaysia → Thailand1.74 million in the half-year, Thailand's second-largest market
Hong Kong → Japan1,298,500 in the half-year, up 2.2%
Thailand → Japan704,600 in the half-year, up 3.5%
Taiwan → Vietnammore than 638,000 in the half-year
South Korea → Thailand539,848 in the half-year
Cambodia → Vietnammore than 509,000 in the half-year
Japan → Vietnam442,000 in the half-year
Malaysia → Japan371,400 in the half-year, up 14.6%
Thailand → Vietnam259,500 in the half-year, up about 10%
United States → Philippines645,438 in the half-year, up 5.8% — the Philippines' largest source market
United States → Thailand471,254 in the half-year
United States → Vietnam445,813 in the half-year, up 18.8%
Japan → TaiwanTaiwan's largest source market; total not published
Published on a different basis, so listed but deliberately not drawn — an arc width mixing quarters with half-years would mislead.
FlowReported
Singapore → Malaysia5.14 million in Q1 2026 — quarterly basis, not comparable to the arcs
Indonesia → Malaysia1.05 million in Q1 2026 — quarterly basis
Russia → Thailand946,732 in the half-year — outside this diagram's west-to-east Asian axis
Russia → Vietnam742,700 in the half-year, up 185.8% — outside the axis
Thailand → Malaysia612,040 in Q1 2026 — quarterly basis
United States → Japan354,500 in June 2026 alone, a June record — single month, no half-year total published
Malaysia → Indonesia258,690 in June 2026 alone — single month

Arrivals are national figures published by each country’s tourism authority or statistics agency for January to June 2026, except Thailand, whose published count runs to 4 July. Every arc covers the same half-year so the widths are comparable; flows published on a quarterly or monthly basis are listed above but not drawn. Nothing is estimated or interpolated. Sources are listed at the foot of this page.

What the map shows

Malaysia and Japan finished the half-year almost level, at 21.12 and 21.10 million arrivals, but moved in opposite directions: Malaysia up 2.5%, Japan down 2.0%. They are the two largest totals of the six by a wide margin.

Vietnam grew fastest, up 14.9% to 12.3 million. No other country in the group grew by more than 6%. Thailand fell 3.1% on a count that runs to 4 July, the steepest decline of the six, though it still received more visitors than Vietnam.

Regional traffic dominates. The heaviest arcs on the diagram are all short-haul: South Korea into Japan at about 5.7 million, Taiwan into Japan at nearly 4 million, South Korea into Vietnam at 2.16 million and Malaysia into Thailand at 1.74 million. Japan is Taiwan's largest source market while Taiwan is one of Japan's fastest-growing, so those two trade visitors in both directions.

Several markets are both. Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan each appear as a destination and as a significant origin. Malaysia sent 1.74 million people to Thailand and 371,400 to Japan while receiving 21.12 million of its own; Taiwan received 4.29 million and sent close to 4 million to Japan alone.

A note on what is not drawn

Arc width encodes volume, so every arc has to cover the same period or the widths lie. Only flows with a published January–June 2026 figure are drawn. Seven further flows are real and substantial but are published on another basis — Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand into Malaysia are quarterly, Malaysia into Indonesia is a single month — and those are listed in their own table rather than drawn at a width that would not be comparable.

Russia and the United States both send large numbers into this region: 946,732 Russians to Thailand and 742,700 to Vietnam in the half-year, and nearly 530,000 Americans to Vietnam. They are listed but not drawn, because neither sits on a west-to-east Asian axis without distorting it.

A dashed arc means the flow is known to be significant but no total has been published. Nothing on this diagram is estimated or interpolated.

One figure carries a caveat worth stating. The three United States arcs are taken from a single cross-country series so that they are comparable with each other. Vietnam’s own half-year breakdown puts American arrivals nearer 530,000 rather than the 445,813 shown here. National reporting and cross-country comparisons often count slightly differently; where they disagree, this diagram keeps the arcs internally consistent and says so rather than picking the larger number.

Related reporting

References

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