Govt, Private Sector Downplay Impact Of Political Uncertainty On Thailand Tourism

[webfact]

State, Private Sector Downplay Impact of Political Uncertainty on Tourism

The state and the private sectors remain confident that tourism will be unaffected by political uncertainty marked by the sustained protests and border disputes with Cambodia.

They are optimistic about achieving this year's tourist arrival target of 17 million people.

Tourism and Sports Minister Chumphon Silapa-archa said he believes the territory feud between Thailand and Cambodia will not affect tourism or trade along the border, citing a steady increase in the number of tourists and hotel bookings.

He disclosed that the number of tourist arrivals for 2010 totaled 15.8 million people, an increase of 1.7 million from the previous year.

The ministry is expecting an estimated 17 million travelers for this year.

Sutat Pearsurin, a committee member of the I-San Hotel Association, said that the number of hotel bookings for seminars in the northeastern region is rising steadily.

An increase of five percent was recorded during the first months of the year.

He is convinced that the ongoing political turmoil will not affect northeastern tourism, as most tourists have become accustomed to nonviolent rallies.

Meanwhile, hotel operators remain optimistic about growth prospects for tourism in the region, citing the favorable tourist numbers, with nearly 300,000 people traveling there during the New Year's holidays.

They also stressed the need to develop new tourist destinations to attract more travelers, while expressing the view that tourism will not be affected by political factors as long as there is no violence and that the government is able to control the situation.

In addition to the increasing number of foreign tourists visiting the country, more Thais are likely to travel overseas this year.

President of the Thai Travel Agents Association Charoen Wangananont estimates a 10-percent increase in the number of Thais who will spend the Chinese New Year's holidays in other countries, compared with last year.

Each traveler is expected to spend 50,000 baht and stay four to five nights per trip.

Most Thai travelers have plans to travel to China for their holidays, while Singapore has become more popular, thanks to many novel tourist attractions.

-- Tan Network 2011-01-31

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TOURISM

ATTA expects only 12 mn tourist arrivals

By Suchat Sritama

The Nation

The Association of Thai Travel Agents expects tourist arrivals this year to fall to only 12 million.

The forecast is in stark contrast to the official one, which expects the arrivals to be as high as 16 million this year compared to about 15 million last year.

Surapol Sritrakul, president of the association, said at a seminar today that the figures do not take into account foreigners who entered through border checkpoints, as normally they do not check into any hotel and spend significantly in the Kingdom.

The official figures count the arrivals of all channels.

-- The Nation 2011-01-31

[londonthai]

the figures do not take into account foreigners who entered through border checkpoints ... The official figures count the arrivals of all channels.

on top of the border checkpoints the country can be entered illegally, but those entering this way are not tourists but migrant workers. Yes, the figure might be as high as 5 mln (a difference between 17 and 12 mln), some might be crossing the border multiple times over the year (coming back to their home country for holidays)

Edited January 31, 2011 by londonthai

[rubl]

President of the Thai Travel Agents Association Charoen Wangananont estimates a 10-percent increase in the number of Thais who will spend the Chinese New Year's holidays in other countries, compared with last year.

Each traveler is expected to spend 50,000 baht and stay four to five nights per trip.

Now don't tell me these Thai tourists are including in the 16M expected by TAT ?

[Thai at Heart]

The state and the private sectors remain confident that tourism will be unaffected by political uncertainty marked by the sustained protests and border disputes with Cambodia.

I didn't realise that SNAFU had become an official government policy.

[Bagwan]

50K baht per day per head? My guess is that somebody's finger is some distance from the pulse. No, it's not there either Noi.

[londonthai]

50K baht per day per head?

"is expected to spend 50,000 baht and stay four to five nights per trip" is about thai travelling abroad during chinese new year, rather about tourists to thailand.

in both cases 50k is overestimate, as an average traveller spends 1-5k (depending on budget) + cost of the flight/transport (which is rather cheap nowdays, with budget airlines offering special deals)