travel
tale of the tape As Thai Travel Industry Booms, 'East' Replaces 'West' asTop Source of Arrivals By Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor,
www.travel-impact- newswire.com
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hailand’s travel and tourism industry is its most successful service industry, and one of the top three economic sectors overall along with agriculture and manufacturing. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Thailand recorded 19.23 million international visitors in 2011, up by 20.67% over 2010. With an average length of stay of 9.64 days, and an average daily spend of Bt4,187.12 (US$137) per person, the Thai tourism industry generated 776 billion baht in earnings. The target for this year is a little more than 20 million visitors. Although the industry has grown phenomenally over the years, one of the most important changes has been in the profile of visitors to Thailand. Today, all but two of the top-ten source-market countries are from within the Asia-Pacific region, replacing Europe and the United States, which once topped the charts in the 1980s and 1990s. In Jan-Sept 2012, visitor arrivals totalled 15,964,133, up 8.69% over Jan-Sept 2011. Lookeast readers may find interesting the following summary profile of arrivals (with all percentage changes being over Jan-Sept 2011), and a brief snapshot analysis of what is driving change. All the figures are sourced from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports: 1. Top performer: China with 1,945,948, up a whopping 39.13%. This figure excludes arrivals from Hong Kong SAR. China will become the first country to cross the two million mark in visitor arrivals in 2012. It has been the fastest growing source-market for the past five years, thanks to close geographical proximity, Thailand’s value
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for money, visas on arrival at international border checkpoints to Thailand and nearly 200 direct flight connections a week from cities across China to cities in Thailand. 2. Malaysia: 1,778,380 arrivals, down 6.54%. Because it is an overland bordercrossing away, Malaysia was historically the top source-market until edged out by China this year. The vast majority of visitors are overnighters and the numbers rise and fall depending on the circumstances in South Thailand. Recently, a number of Southern provinces have also been affected by floods. 3. Japan: 995,072 arrivals, up 9.46%. Japan is one of the largest investors in Thailand and there is a high percentage of business travel. Both leisure and business travel were affected in 2011 by the Fukushima tsunami disaster and the OctoberNovember 2011 floods in Thailand. Since then, arrivals have resumed to normal. 4. Korea: 843,136 arrivals, up 5.71%. This is a steadily growing market rarely affected by peaks and troughs. There is plenty of airline seat capacity and Koreans don’t need visas to come to Thailand. 5. Russia: 757,998 arrivals, up 18.93%. This is another fast-growing market, also projected to cross the one million mark within two years. It began with the huge popularity of Pattaya beach resort as a destination for Russians to escape their harsh winters but has since gained new impetus with advent of charters to other resorts such as Phuket.