Asian arrivals drive Thai tourism recovery

Thailand’s tourism industry continued to show evidence of a recovery in January 2015, as the country welcomed 2.65 million international visitors – 16.3% more than the same month last year.

While it should be noted that Bangkok was starting to become gripped by street protests in January 2014, the upturn in arrivals will be welcome news for the country, which suffered a full-year decline in visitor numbers last year following the protests and subsequent coup.

The latest figures, published by Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism & Sports, were helped by a strong rise in Asian visitors. China retained its position as Thailand’s largest source market in January 2015, contributing 560,399 visitors – up 57% year-on-year. There was also a strong rise in visitors from Malaysia (+93% to 279,517) and South Korea (+13% to 153,311).

Most ASEAN markets also performed well, including Singapore (+50% to 69,229), Vietnam (+55% to 53,038) and Cambodia (+36% to 51,605), while Indian arrivals climbed 17% to 81,716.

But Thailand’s traditional source markets of Europe (-14% to 727,462) and Australia (-7% to 72,904) continued to stagnate.

The governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Thawatchai Arunyik, said he was happy with the result. “This is a clear indication that all our tourism revival strategies have produced excellent results. It is an excellent start to 2015, and we are hoping to maintain the arrivals all through the year.”

Thailand is targeting 28m visitor arrivals in 2015, which would mark a 13% increase compared to 2014, with tourism revenues expected to rise 16% to THB1.35 trillion.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com