The countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region are rich in assets and activities that attract visitors from around the world. BIMSTEC leaders agreed on joint actions to promote tourism in the region at ministerial meetings held in February 2005 and August 2006. At the 2005 meeting, they vowed to increase tourism among their countries by fostering closer cooperation in transport networks, creating intraregional thematic tour packages, simplifying cross-border immigration procedures, sharing best practices, and implementing an action plan to realize these objectives. This commitment was reaffirmed at the 2006 meeting, albeit with a revised plan.

This report sets the stage for developing a comprehensive tourism strategy in the BIMSTEC region that includes an updated action. It identifies and proposes ways to address issues and needs in the tourism sector, including the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has hit intraregional and inbound tourism in the BIMSTEC region.

Tourist arrivals and receipts in the BIMSTEC region grew more than 250% since 2010 to almost $66 million and $99 billion, respectively, by 2019. Parallel to this, intraregional (Section 3.1) and domestic tourism growth among BIMSTEC countries had been steady. Factoring in some of the main drivers of global and regional tourism, especially segments such as cultural and wellness tourism, and rising income levels among BIMSTEC countries, the future looked promising for a return to the growth trajectory before the outbreak of COVID-19.

BIMSTEC countries can offer thematic tourist circuits to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and a return to pre-COVID-19 tourism growth. Circuits are essentially itineraries that many tour operators offer throughout the region. They are effective ways to organize and manage sustainable tourism within and between countries since they can bring together public and private sector stakeholders to improve destinations along circuit routes.

Fully realizing the benefits of cross-border tourist circuits, however, requires tackling multiple issues throughout the region. BIMSTEC’s Secretariat could, with sufficient resources, be the central catalyst for realizing this vision, addressing the issues, achieving regional objectives, and maximizing the benefits of thematic, circuit–driven tourism for all member states.

COVID-19 had begun its rapid global spread by early February 2020. By mid-March, travel and tourism around the world was collapsing, especially in major tourism markets, causing widespread cancellations, job losses, and business failures. With vaccine programs commencing in late 2020 and 2021 to bring COVID-19 under control, the prospects for some recovery in 2022 seemed brighter, with travel and tourism potentially on a faster recovery track. Increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation will be essential to make this happen.

Tourism was growing rapidly in Asia and the Pacific—and, indeed, globally—before the COVID-19 outbreak. In 2019, global tourism arrivals were up 3.1% from 2018 and arrivals to Asia and the Pacific rose 4.1% (371 million arrivals), generating receipts of $1.5 billion globally and $445 million in Asia and the Pacific. Among BIMSTEC countries, arrivals increased from 63.3 million in 2018 to 65.0 million in 2019, generating receipts of $93.2 billion and almost $99.0 billion, respectively. Thailand accounted for the largest share on almost 40 million arrivals and $61.5 billion in receipts. Intraregional travel among most BIMSTEC countries was also growing steadily, marked by substantial numbers of outbound visitors from India to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Thailand and from Bangladesh to India and Thailand.

Income growth in BIMSTEC countries before the outbreak was driving some intraregional travel and contributing to overall gross domestic product (GDP) and tourism-related GDP growth. Domestic tourism spending was also growing, especially in India, which dominated the region with receipts of $143 billion in 2019, followed by Thailand with ($28.5 billion). This spending set the stage for domestic tourism in 2020 in these countries and the rest of BIMSTEC and has become the main source of tourism spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multiple demand drivers also generated or facilitated this growth, particularly adventure, cultural, culinary, rural, community-based, and wellness tourism, as well as theme parks and attractions, destination hotels, airline growth, cruises, and shopping.