January travel strong for Thailand

BANGKOK, 26 February 2013: Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports reported, late last week, arrivals to Thailand soared 12.50% in January with Chinese tourists supplying the most visits.

January recorded 2,241,184 visits increasing 12.50% from 1,992,158 visits during the same month last year.

All  regions reported gains. The major contributor East Asia, which includes ASEAN, improved 20.06% to 1,136,141 visits from 946,302. All identified source markets posted growth except Cambodia (-16.20%), Laos (-16.33%), Malaysia (-2.23%) and Hong Kong (-0.97%).

Brunei had a remarkable 101.21% growth rate for the month, but on a small base of 1,163 visits up from 578 in the same month last year.

Singapore grew 50.99% to 42,829. Indonesia posted a growth of 44.90%. China arrivals grew 38.57% to 308,697 compared to 222,773 visits during the same month in 2011.

Japan another key market reported a growth of 35.60%, South Korea 32.35% and Myanmar 31.45%.

Europe posted a slight growth due to the financial crisis at 2.85% (729,121), although some markets reported substantial declines: Austria (-3.42%); Denmark (-20.28%); Finland (-18.38%); France (-0.07%); Italy (-13.46%); Norway (-5.36%); Spain (-1.71%); and Sweden (-11.02%).

Key markets that grew were: Belgium (+8.08%); Germany (+5.17%); Ireland (+14.06%); Netherland (+2.32%); Russia (+14.18%); Switzerland (+1.13%); and the United Kingdom (+6.67%).

Arrivals from Africa, South Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Middle East were all robust up 42.87%, 26.96%, 7.24%, 3.12% and 2.19% respectively.

In January, the ministry reported international tourist arrivals to Thailand at the country gateway Suvarnabhumi Airport increased 10.56% to 1,366,553 visits compared to 1,236,018 visits during the same month in 2011.

(Editor’s note: We report the ministry’s data as it is given with some comments when required, but it should not imply that the data provided is an accurate reflection of actual market conditions. There is no independent channel collating tourism data in Thailand.

Sourced: ttrweekly