Chinese New Year boosts tourist figures

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) expects the Chinese New Year to lure 300,000 international arrivals to the country.

Since the United States embassy issued a warning to its citizens that foreign terrorists may be looking to conduct attacks on tourist areas in Bangkok, some tourists have cancelled their bookings including several groups from Hong Kong.A number of tourists from mainland China and Malaysia have shifted their destinations from Bangkok to other cities such as Phuket and Chiang Mai.

"We expect the Chinese New Year will bring in 4 billion baht to our country and up to 300,000 Chinese visitors," said TAT governor Surapol Svetasreni, adding that around 150 charter flights will go to Phuket during the days of the festivity.The TAT has also forecast that 7 billion baht will be generated by 2.5 million Thais during domestic trips over the Chinese New Year.

The Thai and Chinese governments will co-host cultural performances in 10 provinces to celebrate the Lunar Year as well as to mark the 37th anniversary of Sino-Thai diplomatic relations. The performers will fly in directly from various parts of China such as Beijing, Shanghai and Inner Mongolia.They will hold shows in Ayutthaya, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Sawan, Ratchaburi, Songkhla, Suphan Buri and Phuket.

Worldwide tourism hits new record

International tourism worldwide hit a new record with 4.4% growth in 2011 despite a slowing global economy, political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and several natural disasters.

According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, the number of worldwide travellers increased from 939 million in 2010 to 980 million last year. More than half visited Europe.The Asia-Pacific region welcomed 216 million international tourists, while 156 million visited the Americas and 55 million went to the Middle East.

Although about 50 million people visited Africa last year, North Africa experienced negative growth (-12%) as did the Middle East (-6%) due to the political unrest in those regions.The top tourist spenders in 2011 were the Chinese followed by Russians, Brazilians and Indians.

UNWTO also predicted the total number of tourists in 2012 will grow by 3-4% to hit 1 billion by the end of the year.The strong growth will shift from Europe to Asia and the Pacific as well as Africa, while the Middle East will be able to recover this year.

The number of international tourists will grow annually from now until 2030 when it is forecast to reach 1.8 billion international arrivals.Thailand's international arrivals jumped 19.8% from 15,936,400 million travellers in 2010 to 19,098,323 in 2011, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

The top 10 visitors are from Malaysia (2.47 million) followed by China (1.76 million), Japan (1.12 million), Russia (1.01 million), Korea which only 10,201 visitors lower than Russia, India (916,787), Laos (887,677), Australia (854,064), the United Kingdom (844,224) and the United States (684,073).The tourism ministry expects Thailand to lure 20.5 to 20.8 million visitors this year.

Source - bangkokpost