Thailand enjoys bullish Q1

 Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports reported, late last week, arrivals to Thailand soared 18% during January to March to record 6.8 million trips.

For the first three months of this year, the kingdom attracted 6,828,718 international visits improving 18.94% from 5,741,454 visits during the same period last year.

In March, there were 2,259,237  international trips growing 19.19% compared to 1,895,560 during the same month in 2012. All regions except the Middle East reported gains.

The major contributor East Asia, which includes ASEAN, improved 23.15% to 1,215,485 from 987,033 visits. All identified source markets posted growth except Cambodia (-10.26%); Laos (-12.02%); Malaysia (-17.09%); and Singapore (-1.50%).

China was the top supplier with  396,895 visits over 198,767, a 99%  jump. Association of Thai Travel Agents’ data for the China market, handled by its member companies, was in line with the ministry’s assessed growth rate, up 55.28% (136,962).

Brunei grew 64.14% , but supplied only 1,492 visits. Meanwhile, Hong Kong recorded a growth of 46.82% followed by Indonesia (+45.29%); Taiwan (+30.68%); Myanmar (+28.38%); Japan (+15.20%); South Korea (+14.87%); Philippines (+6.47%); and Vietnam (+2.36%).

Europe posted a growth of 18.83%. None of the key markets posted a decline. The top five markets that grew were: East Europe (+44.36%); Russia (+34.49%); Austria (+25.15%); Belgium (+21.02%); and Germany (+18.02%).

Arrivals from South Asia, Africa, Americas and Oceania were all robust rising 16.71%, 7.27%, 7.63%, and 5.72% correspondingly while the Middle East was down 2.05%.

In addition, the ministry reported international tourists to Thailand at the country’s gateway Suvarnabhumi Airport reached 1,546,794 visits in March increasing 26.63% from 1,221,500 visits during the same month last year.

Sourced: ttrweekly