THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: It’s been said often enough that there are lies, damn lies and statistics and those in the Thai travel industry are being left bewildered as to who to believe and who not, with conflicting information being bandied about on almost a daily basis on inbound tourist numbers.

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) there was an increase of 13.7 percent in international arrivals between January and June – a period that covers the political protests in the heart of Bangkok – with 7.52 million foreign arrivals compared to 6.61 million in the same period last year.

Supporting the claim by the government tourism authority is the Airports of Thailand (AoT), a limited public company owned 70 percent by the Thai government, who claim international traffic to both Phuket and Chiang Mai was strong during the first half of 2010, with foreign arrivals increasing by more than 49 percent and 26 percent respectively to those destinations over the same period last year.

In direct contradiction to the robust figures quoted by the AoT and TAT is the Thai Hotel Association (THT), who have reported declines in occupancy across the nation.

Earlier this week Prakit Chinamornpong, president of the THA, said the average occupancy rate (AOR) across the country should be approximately 65 to 70 percent, but this year the rate has dropped to between 40 and 50 percent.

According to Mr. Prakit, the AOR in the eastern region was 44.7 percent, in the north 41.3 percent, while the western provinces had an AOR of 56 percent while Bangkok was down to 49.9 percent. 

Mr. Prakit blamed the substandard AORs on the state of emergency (SOE) imposed by the Government last April, and said as long as the SOE remained in place “we can expect to lose business and suffer low occupancies across the country”.

On Thursday Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ordered the revocation of the emergency decree in six of the 16 provinces still subject to the law, but left most of the northern provinces and Bangkok still subject to the law that imposes harsh penalties on protests against the government.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for July 30, 2010