THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: After facing a seemingly mammoth dent in its inbound foreign tourism numbers for 2009 following the closure of both Bangkok airports last year by anti-government protesters, Thailand appears to have jumped the shark with inbound tourism figures for 2009 finish strongly.

The Airports of Thailand (AoT) is forecasting up to 140,000 people a day passing through Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport between Christmas day and January 5, a 40 percent increase over the same period last year.

According to the AoT, passenger numbers passing through Suvarnabhumi Airport in the first 20 days of December averaged 130,000 a day, with almost 800 flights a day being handled.

Niran Thiranartsin, director of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, said the global economic crisis seems to have ended, the domestic political situation is calm, and people’s memory of the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s (PAD) seizure of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports between November 25 and December 4, last year is fading.

In addition, two new carriers, South Korean low-cost airline Jin Air and French airline Air Austral, last week began flights to Suvarnabhumi, raising the number of airlines servicing the airport to 103.

Mr Niran said about 100,000 international passengers will pass through Suvarnabhumi during each day of the holiday period, plus about 40,000 domestic passengers.

Though passenger numbers have increased over the same period last year, Prakit Chinamourphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), said occupancy levels were still down on last year.

He said occupancy rates for hotels in Chiang Mai and Phuket were about 65 percent, down from 85 percent in a normal period, while in Bangkok it is below 60 percent.

Based on the current occupancy levels Mr Prakit said the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s latest estimate of 13 million foreign tourist arrivals for 2009 appears to be fairly accurate.

“This reflects the fact that the tourism industry has not recovered as much as we expected it would in December and we plan to talk with the new TAT governor about organizing the first hotel mega-sale next year,” Mr Prakit said.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for December 28, 2009