Thailand trails in tourism

Thailand trailed other major Southeast Asian countries in international tourism arrival growth last year, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata).

Vietnam in 2010 had the highest growth rate at 35% over the previous year, followed by Singapore at 20%, the Philippines at 17% and Thailand 12%.International arrivals to Southeast Asia rose 12% to more than 72-million as all destinations set arrivals records.

South Asia, meanwhile, posted even strongest growth with an aggregate gain of 14% to just over 8.4 million. India, which accounted for 70% of all foreign arrivals to the sub-region, posted a 9% gain to set a record of 5.6 million foreign inbound visits for the year.

Sri Lanka (+46%), the Maldives (+21%) and Nepal (+19%) also set records on stronger growth performances last year.Northeast Asia posted arrivals growth of 11% to top 218 million. The strong performances were driven by solid results from Taiwan (+27%), Japan (+27%), Hong Kong (+22%), Mongolia (+20%) and South Korea (+13%), all records.

Macau posted 15% growth but was still slightly behind its inbound record of 27-million set in 2007, Pata said.Growth in international inbound visitors to China was a more modest 6%, but this translates to an incremental 7.3 million arrivals more than in 2009.

Growth in foreign arrivals to China (excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) was a more robust 19%, reaching 26.1 million arrivals, another record.Overall arrivals for Asia and the Pacific last year were 11% higher year-on-year.

Source = bangkokpost