THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: The political upheaval in Bangkok earlier in the year appears to have had little impact on people visiting the kingdom, with the seven month period to date indicating Thailand might welcome 15 million foreign visitors by years end.

According to Thanittha Maneechote, deputy permanent secretary for Tourism and Sports, the number of foreign visitors between January 1 and July 31 increased by 13.79 percent to 8.76 million, compared with 7.7 million in the same period last year.

Admitting the figures were surprisingly better than expected, Mrs. Thanittha said there had been a sharp recovery in arrivals from Asian markets, led by visitors from China, South Korea, Indonesia and India, along with the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Mrs. Thanittha said visitors from China, rose by 48 percent to 561,634, while those from Korea increased by 26 percent to 445,809. There was 405,389 tourists from India, an increase of 19.8 percent, and 546,917 visitors from Japan, an increase of 3.6 percent.

While visitors from the UK topped the European arrival figures at 437,408, followed by 353,188 people from Germany, the number of visitors from Russia increased by a whopping 98.5 percent to 325,306.

The deputy permanent secretary said weekends were the peak days for inbound tourism arrivals with Suvarnabhumi Airport welcoming an average of 28,000 to 32,000 people per day, compared with 24,000 to 26,000 on weekdays.

Of particular note is the increasing tendency among Asian visitors to travel independently rather than using agents or joining group package tours, while the amount spent per day by Asian tourists has now increased to the point that it exceeds the overall average of Bt4,400 (about $US140) per head per day of all tourists combined.

In the spending stakes though the biggest spending visitors are those from the UAE who splurge an average of Bt5,052 ($160.70) per day, followed by those from Saudi Arabia who spend Bt5,012 ($160.28) and South Africans at Bt4,777 ($152.76).

At the start of this year the TAT set a target of between 15 million and 15.5 million foreign tourist arrivals for 2010, generating an estimated revenue of between Bt560 to Bt570 billion (about $17 billion). In 2009 14.14 million foreign tourists visited the kingdom, a 3 percent drop on the 14.58 million in 2008.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for September 01, 2010