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Thailand trips still climbing

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BANGKOK, 18 October 2018: Thailand managed to log a respectable increase in tourist arrivals during the first nine months of the year, despite hefty declines in Chinese visits since July.

Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sport Permanent Secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, reported earlier this week that tourist arrivals, January to September, reached 28,541,887, up 8.71%.

During the same period in 2017, the country registered 26,254,806 arrivals.

Pongpanu Svetarundra

Looking forward, if the final quarter performs anything like last year it will weigh in with approximately 9 million more visits, which will push the year-end total across the 37.5 million-target threshold.

Despite predictions of gloom and doom, the China market, January to September, recorded 8,376,049 trips, an increase of 13.38% when compared with 7,394,101 trips during the same period in 2017.

The scorecard presentation challenges claims by the country’s travel industry that pointed to a major drop in bookings from China that could persist through to Chinese New Year 2019.

The latest Ministry data confirmed China remained the top source market clocking 8.37 million trips for the nine months followed by Malaysia with 2.87 million.

Korea, in third place, supplied 1.33 million, Laos 1.29 million and Japan with 1.23 million was named the fifth largest supply market so far this year.

Based on estimated revenue generated from each market, China topped the five leading markets with THB460 billion followed by Russia with THB80 billion, Malaysia THB75 billion, Korea THB60 billion and the USA with THB60 billion.

Total revenue for the nine months was THB1,490,458.01 million, an increase of 10.95% over the same period of last year, the ministry reported.

September’s performance closed with 2,655,563 tourists arrivals up by a narrow 2.13% year-on-year.

However, the month’s performance did reflect a massive drop in Chinese visits, down by 14.89% to register 648,000 trips.

This could be what concerns hoteliers especially at popular beach resorts.  If September’s decline in the Chinese market is replicated in October through to December, total arrivals could fall short of the 10 million target.

September was the first month since the July boat accident in Phuket to record a double-digit decline in visits from China.

September’s performance also indicated a 3.66 decline in trips from Singapore, an important top-10 market for Thailand.

In contrast, three markets in the month’s top-10 list, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam, recorded double-digit growth in tourist arrivals.

The top 10 tourist arrivals markets comprised of: China (-14.89%); Malaysia (+40.13%); Laos (+9.49%); Japan (+6.57%); Korea (+0.74%); India (+5.52%); Cambodia (+6.88%); Hong Kong (+20.69%); Singapore (-3.66%) and Vietnam (+11.77%).

Of the 2,655,562 foreign visitors logged in September, 1,948,414 trips were generated in East Asian markets, followed by Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and Africa, respectively.

September’s tourism revenue reached THB140,140.11 million, an increase of 2.92%  year-on-year.

The top revenue markets were: China; Malaysia; Japan; Korea; Australia; USA; Laos; India; UK and Cambodia.

Of all the 10 revenue markets just two recorded declines in September. China generated THB36.8 billion in revenue, down 11.49% and Australia THB6.31 billion, down 3.04%.

A Ctrip report on travel bookings for the Golden Week holiday, 1 to 7 October, that saw millions of Chinese travellers visiting destinations in Asia indicated Thailand had emerged as the top destination, ahead of Japan.

But on the ground, confidence is down particularly at beach resorts such as Phuket the scene of a tragic boat accident in early July that killed 46 Chinese tourists.

Hoteliers contacted by TTR Weekly said they were concerned bookings would continue to decline and that a full recovery could take months, possibly until Chinese New Year in 2019.

2 COMMENTS

  1. September tourism statistic wasn’t only affected by Phuket boat mishap & several mischievous incidents at the tourists, but the ongoing ‘zero-tour’ cracked down in which resulting to the decreasing number of ‘chartered flights’ as well as President Trump’s ‘trade war’ the stumbling of global economy also.

    Although it’s a good forewarning sign that Thailand can’t rely so much on Chinese tourists market alone anymore.

  2. There are two prominent points :
    1. The number of Laos tourists ranks fourth, the ministry should study deeply of this tourism market why and how come with analysis.
    2. The number of Japanese tourists ranks fifth while the number of Korean tourists ranks third for instance the number of population of Japan is much more than Korea, there must be something wrong with the Japan tourism market for Thailand.
    It would be more beneficial if the ministry could present the data and information in depth rather than ordinary basis as done in the same old way.

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