Bangkok Top Asian City For Visitors

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BANGKOK

Bangkok top Asian city for visitors

By Kittipong Thavevong

The Nation, Singapore

Despite last year's violence in the city and the lingering political uncertainties, Bangkok is ranked first among Asian cities based on the estimated number of international arrivals by air and the level of visitor expenditure this year, according to the findings of a study conducted by a leading credit-card company.

Globally, the capital is the third-most-popular destination among air travellers and comes fourth in terms of visitor spending.

About 11.5 million air travellers are expected to visit Bangkok and spend US$14.4 billion (Bt436 billion) this year.

However, contrary to the popular perception that most visitors to Thailand are thrifty backpackers, it is estimated that Bangkok's expenditure per visitor is $1,252, which is ranked third globally after New York ($2,671) and London ($1,274).

The estimates are based on findings in a research programme by MasterCard Worldwide called the "Index of Global Destination Cities", covering 132 cities around the world with the potential of being "centres of commerce" for regional and global economies.

The author of the report, Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, said the findings showed that Thailand's political conflict over the past five years, which turned deadly last year, had only a temporary impact on the country's status as a preferred destination among international travellers.

Visitors appear to have kept coming to the capital despite the political unrest, he said during a meeting with a group of Asean journalists in Singapore on Monday.

Hedrick-Wong, a Canadian, is global economic adviser at MasterCard Worldwide and visiting professor of international business at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Most visitors to Bangkok travel from Asia, with those from Singapore the largest group among the 10 top origin cities at an estimated 869,000 visitors, followed by Hong Kong (822,000), and Tokyo (711,000).

London, Frankfurt and Sydney are also among the top 10 origin cities for visitors to Bangkok.

Inbound business travellers make up a large portion of air visitors to Bangkok, ranging from 29 to 37 per cent. Among the top five origin cities, 35 per cent of visitors from Singapore are business travellers, 37 per cent of those from Hong Kong, 28.9 per cent of those from Tokyo, 29.3 per cent of those from Seoul and 31.7 per cent of those from London.

Interestingly, many outbound visitors from Bangkok fly to Macau, which is well known for its huge casino business. An estimated 181,000 visitors from Thailand will fly to Macau and spend $172 million there this year, much of it on gambling, Hedrick-Wong said.

Macau is ranked ninth in the top 10 destination cities for outbound travellers from Bangkok. Most other outbound travel is for business purposes, with the top five destinations for this being Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Tokyo.

Hedrick-Wong said the projections made for Tokyo - which is ranked 20th for visitor arrivals and 15th for visitor spending - may lack accuracy because of the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear scare hitting northern Japan. The calculations for this report were done before the disasters struck the country, which resulted in sharp decreases in tourist arrivals.

London was the world's top destination among international visitors travelling by air last year, at an estimated 20.1 million, and Paris was second (18.1 million). London is still the world's No 1 in terms of visitor spending ($25.6 billion) but interestingly, New York is expected to see the second-highest visitor spending, with $20.3 billion, surpassing Paris' estimated $14.6 billion.

New York is the only city outside Asia and Europe on the list of the world's 20 top destination cities, which contains nine Asian cities and 10 in Europe. New York is ranked 12th.

However, when it comes to visitor spending, seven Asian cities make it into the top 20. Eight cities in Europe, three in the United States and two in Australia are also on the list.

Bangkok is the last among the 10 cities with the highest growth rates of visitor spending, which when compared with 2010 ranges between 18.6 per cent for both the Thai capital and Seoul and 30.1 per cent for the Turkish city of Istanbul, according to the report.

However, Bangkok fails to make it into the top 10 among the cities with the highest growth rates of visitor arrivals. The Spanish city of Barcelona heads the list, with a 24.3-per-cent expansion, and New York is placed 10th (11.7 per cent).

Both tourists and business travellers are covered in the MasterCard study; it does not, however, include visitors who cross borders overland.

The data were collected in 2009 and 2010 and the calculations behind the estimates were made before March this year.

-- The Nation 2011-06-02

[chooka]

Has the airport transit lounge got anything to do with it.

[geriatrickid]

Don't take too much from the numbers. The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities is compiled using international flight and flight capacity information purchased from OAG Global, a provider of international aviation data. Flight schedules are also used for calculating flight frequency between pairs of cities. Airlines also publish on a regular basis their historical load factor, and advance flight schedules, which are then used to estimate the actual outbound passenger departures, and for forecasting outbound passenger departures in the coming year.

In plain English, the Master Card results simply predict based upon airline flight schedules. Look at the flight schedules; Houston is a hub for Continental and now United. Barcelona recently became an important regional hub. Chicago, Hong Kong are important transport hubs. The number of connecting flights to asian destinations will bloat the data. for asian connection points.

This report merely reflects airline schedules. It would be interesting to see what Visa the world's most popular cedit card and Amex the credit card favoured by international business would report. Mastercard suffers from limited acceptance around the globe compared to Visa so all I take away from this is that it is an attempt for product placement.

Edited June 2, 2011 by geriatrickid

[Nisa]

Don't take too much from the numbers. The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities is compiled using international flight and flight capacity information purchased from OAG Global, a provider of international aviation data. Flight schedules are also used for calculating flight frequency between pairs of cities. Airlines also publish on a regular basis their historical load factor, and advance flight schedules, which are then used to estimate the actual outbound passenger departures, and for forecasting outbound passenger departures in the coming year.

In plain English, the Master Card results simply predict based upon airline flight schedules. Look at the flight schedules; Houston is a hub for Continental and now United. Barcelona recently became an important regional hub. Chicago, Hong Kong are important transport hubs. The number of connecting flights to asian destinations will bloat the data. for asian connection points.

This report merely reflects airline schedules. It would be interesting to see what Visa the world's most popular cedit card and Amex the credit card favoured by international business would report. Mastercard suffers from limited acceptance around the globe compared to Visa so all I take away from this is that it is an attempt for product placement.

Interesting because I thought they also covered average spent per visitor as well as at least leading one to believe these people actually entered Thailand (went through immigration)

[ginjag]

Has the airport transit lounge got anything to do with it.

Similar to T.A.T. figures they all seem a cocktail. The word is Visitors-----One third Business---one third ASIAN. LAND visitors are NOT included -do immigration check Master card spenders ??? Did You see the figures were no where near previous figures for arrivals =departures=at all international airports, believe what statistics you want eh!!!!

[DP25]

However, contrary to the popular perception that most visitors to Thailand are thrifty backpackers, it is estimated that Bangkok's expenditure per visitor is $1,252

lol wut? Many backpackers are spending a lot more than that. Just because they don't waste their money on international $300 a night hotel chains doesn't mean they're not spending money. If you're here for 2 months you'll be spending plenty of money, even if your guesthouse is 300B per night. And it's usually spent on small local businesses not international ones.

[blazes]

If your city is a "hub" (internationally) you are always going to be in the top Something or other. How many of those arriving in Bkk go straight on to KK or Chiang Mai or wherever (oh, how could I forget Papayumyum?).

And since when has London, for god's sake, been as 'cheap' (almost) as Bkk?

[sydneyjed]

Ask anyone in Phuket right now how business is and has been this last season?Again if it wasn't for Aussies having flights aimed specifically at the package tour market the place would be even worse than it already is!Inbound tourism from Europe and America is way down on two years ago due to the currency exchange rate...everybody knows this(except TAT)Travel Today(the Australian travel industry online journal)had articles that raised concerns months ago about why Thailand had to reinvent itself to attract families to holiday here...Delusional springs to mind unfortunately with what Thais' think and expect will happen in the forseeable future in respect to tourism!!