Thailand’s visitor arrivals surged a record in first quarter 2013
Bangkok : Led by a dramatic 93% growth in arrivals from China, Thailand’s visitor arrivals surged to a record total of 6,828,718 in January – March 2013, up by 18.94% over the same period of 2012, according to figures published by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
China’s total of 1.12 million visitor arrivals made it the first time that any country had crossed the one million mark in the short span of three months. The growth was mainly due to the Chinese New Year in February 2013, which led to a spike in long-holiday travel to Thailand. In addition, major markets such as Russia, Korea and India are showing strong double digit growth and Japan has bounced back strongly.
TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni welcomed the good results. “We are gratified to see that our marketing efforts are producing results. In these days of economic challenges and geopolitical instability, it is very important that at least one sector of the economy is continuing to prove to be a major source of income and jobs.” Mr. Suraphon said he was also pleased to see that the strengthening of the Thai Baht has not impacted visitor arrivals to Thailand.
Top 10 source-markets of Visitor Arrivals to Thailand Jan. – Mar. 2013
1 China 1,122,691
2 Malaysia 627,759
3 Russia 584,516
4 Japan 408,048
5 Korea 350,529
6 Germany 252,108
7 India 249,350
8 United Kingdom 246,943
9 USA 227,319
10 Australia 224,530
Source: TATnews.org
