Tourism down on political unrest

[buksida]

The number of international tourist arrivals in March fell by 9.39% year-on-year to 2.1 million due mainly to the political unrest, says the Tourism Department.

The six markets with the biggest declines were Africa (-17.8%), South Asia (-17.7%), the Middle East (-14.8%), East Asia (-14.67%) Oceania (-10.7%) and the Americas (-5.06%).

But Europe saw a 2.25% increase to 680,728 visitors on the back of an improving economy. The two main growth drivers were the Russian market, which rose by 9.86% to 211,677 visitors, and Finland, which grew by 48.3% to 25,897.

Among key markets, arrivals from Japan dropped by 26.1% to 101,046 visitors, while Malaysia was down 20.3% to 184,233, Britain 13.1%, to 79,608, China 11.1% to 331,638 and Germany 11% to 79,966.

In the first quarter, international tourist arrivals fell 5.85% year-on-year to 6.6 million, while tourism revenue declined by 4.02% to 311 billion baht.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand projects foreign tourist arrivals this year will reach 28 million, while tourism revenue will be 2 trillion baht.

Full Story: Bangkok Post

[STEVE G]

With regards to European tourism numbers, I notice that a lot of people I know are now going to other countries in the region, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao and I've even heard of interest in Mynamar. This is not driven by unrest or anything negative about Thailand, just that most have already visited several times and are looking for something new.

[oakdale160]

A huge proportion of winter tourists are repeat visitors, the golfers, the snowbirds, the sex tourists all have been many times and know that the political problems only affect bkk. This is why pattaya, phuket and Hua Hin did not take a big hit. A larger proportion of summer visitors are first timers and the 2nd and 3rd quarter figures may be worse.

[Korkenzieher]

I think travel advisories, insurance hikes and the like will also mainly affect package holiday tourists and / or resort dwellers. People familiar with LOS won't be affected to the same extent by these issues.

You would have to feel though, that the opening up of other countries to wider tourism is going to affect receipts here, even if they are technically counted by Thailand. Because Swampy will be the most convenient destination for their flight entry into the region, Thai numbers could even rise, disguising a major shift in patterns of underlying tourist destination.