Ministry reports seven months arrivals

BANGKOK, 27 August 2010 ― Ministry of Tourism and Sports reported tourist arrivals to Thailand reached 8,766,706 from January to July this year, an increase of 13.79% compared to the same period in 2009.

Almost 50% of the arrivals were from short-haul markets in ASEAN and East Asia. Three of the top five suppliers were from East Asia, a market where arrivals nose dived during recent political motivated violence and chaos on the streets of Bangkok.

The data was presented, yesterday, in a format the ministry calls  “unofficial preview data” that can be released before the official version is made public around a month later.

Predictably, neighbouring Malaysia was the top producer from the region based on extensive road and airline connections. Arrivals reached 1,086,247 during the first seven months compared to  953,437 in 2009. There are approximately 12 Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur flights per day per sector plus flights between Bangkok and Penang, Phuket-Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai-Kuala Lumpur, Krabi-Kuala Lumpur, Penang-Samui and Penang-Phuket. Air capacity has increased even more as AirAsia last week resumed Kuala Lumpur-Hat Yai service.

However, recovery for the second and third suppliers, China and Japan surprised observers because arrivals from these countries almost vanished during Thailand’s political chaos due to travel advisories. Chinese arrivals during the seven-month period increased 47.95% from 379,604 to 561,634. Japanese arrivals increased slightly by 3.6%, from 527,937 to 546,917, but it was viewed as a positive indicator.

The fourth most important market, the United Kingdom supplied  473,408 arrivals, up 0.33% and Korea was fifth with 445,809 arrivals, up 25.97%.

The remaining top 10 were: India (405,389, +19.88%); Australia (387,704, +11.65%); Laos (359,876, -7.94%); USA (356,104, -0.07%) and Germany (353,188, 14.58%).

Russia in the11th slot increased by a resounding 98.49%; almost double over the same period in 2009. The second highest increase in visitors went to Argentina, 49.36% (6,025 from 4,034) and the third highest was registered by China at 47.95% followed by Indonesia, 43.98% (155,296 from 107,858) and South Africa, 30.71% (27,080 from 20,718).

A significant decline was seen in Saudi Arabia, down 22.26% (6,297 to 4,895). Saudi Arabia is the only country that maintains the highest travel advisory alert on Thailand even though political situation has calmed down. Diplomatic relations between of the two countries remain tangled in past controversy.

Other declines : Cambodia; 12.49%; Ireland 10.83%; Laos 7.94%; Finland 6.63%; Spain, 1.85% and USA 0.07%.

By region, there were 4,330,340 tourists from East Asia (includes ASEAN); 2,564,999 from Europe; 532,664 from South Asia; 492,509 from the Americas; 438,241 from Oceania; 341,151 from Middle East and 66,802 from Africa.

The  data was obtained through the Immigration Bureau, Royal Thai Police, for all points of entry. The figures need to be  endorsed officially through ministry procedures, but they are sufficient for the travel industry to recognise basic changing trends and performance indicators.  They exclude visitors using border passes and expatriate Thais. The official release of the six-month arrivals data will be  released  in September containing the additional data.