Thai tourism improves by a sliver

24 Apr 2017 2152 | World Travel News

BANGKOK Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports reports international visits exceeded 9.19 million, January to March this year, representing a slight increase of 1.72%.

Released Tuesday, the ministry’s data showed the country attracted 9,194,057 international visits, last year, compared to 9,038,893 visits during the same period last year.

The data is based on foreign passports, or ID holders, passing through international checkpoints (land, sea and air).

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, said Chinese, Malaysia and Russia were the main source markets that helped to boost the country’s tourism in the first quarter of the year.

Tourism in Q1 also generated an estimated THB154,698.26 million in revenue up 3.73% over same quarter last year, he said.

March highlights

In March, foreign the country recorded 3,007,833 visits up 2.01% from 2,948,690 visits during the same month last year.

By regions, all markets recorded increases except East Asia, the Oceania and Africa.

The Middle East recorded the highest growth of 25.41% from 60,400 to 75,747 visits. Israel showed the highest arrivals with 14,134 visits up 33.78% from 10,565 visits.

Other main markets in the Middle East: United Arab Emirates (13,809; +22.36%); Kuwait (4,226; +13.69%); Saudi Arabia (2,425; +25.71%); and Egypt (2,138; +1.71%).

South Asia posted an increase of 14.47% from 117,557 to 134,564 visits. India led the field supplying 103,634 visits growing 14.22% from 90,735 followed by Bangladesh (10,709; +31.48%), Pakistan (7,901; +29.82%), Sri Lanka (4,842; -22.68%) and Nepal (4,132; +28.36%).

The Americas recorded a growth of 11.51% from 130,112 to 145,085 visits. The US recorded the highest arrivals at 93,768 up 7.56% from 87,174 followed by Canada (25,402; +1.17%), Argentina (9,762; +54.83%) and Brazil (8,981; +97.30%).

Europe increased 3.85% from 632,223 to 656,554 visits. The markets that showed improvements were: Russia (+43.76%); East Europe (+22.73%); Finland (+8.05%); France (+4.23%); and the Netherlands (+1.25%).

The markets that showed declines were: Norway (-35.33%); Denmark (-20.42%); Spain (-17.56%); Switzerland (-15.69%); UK (-13.21%); Belgium (-10.27%); Sweden (-7.65%); Italy (-4.67%); Austria (-4.09%); and Germany (-1.56%).

In contrast, East Asia (ASEAN included) slightly declined 0.45% from 1,922,203 to 1,913,482 visits. The markets showed declines were: Hong Kong (-19.92%); China (-7.85%); and Malaysia (-4.97%).

The markets showed improvements were: South Korea (+24.15%); Myanmar (+15.63%); Vietnam (+15.45%); Laos (+15.31%); Japan (+14.06%); Indonesia (+11.80%); Taiwan (+6.81%); the Philippines (+6.42%); Cambodia (+6.41%); Brunei (+6.33%); and Singapore (+2.37%).