| Mrs. Suwalai Pinpradap, Director of Tourism Authority Thailand, Southern Office, Region 4, said that a number of tourists increased in the first three months of this year. The amount of tourists of this year was higher than last year; however, it was less than 2004.
On this year, there were 1, 074, 558 tourists traveling here. We found that the rate of tourist’s amount increased by 138% that was compared to last year. However, when we compared the amount of this year with last 2 years before Tsunami stroke, we found that the amount of tourists dropped to minus 9%.
She added in the first three months of this year, we got higher income than last 2 year. We received traveling income for 18,425 millions Baht in the three months of this year. Amount of income’s rate was higher than 2004 for 1.39%. We found that the most tourists who visited Phuket were Korean. The rest was usually Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, German and Australian.
The reason why Korean flowed in Phuket was making Phuket Road Show in there. Moreover, Korean used the location of Phuket to make a film. Therefore, Phuket was popular tourist attraction in Korea, especially honeymooners. Nowadays, the transportation between Korea and Phuket was more comfortable than several years ago. Since now, there were a lot of direct flights to Phuket.
In Phang-nga, there were 335,032 tourists visiting in the first three months of this year. A number of tourists were higher than last year; however, the amount of tourist dropped to minus 67.84%.
Phang-nga’s income in the first three months was 840 millions Baht. We found that the income dropped to minus 65% that was compared with 2 years ago.
In Krabi, there were 369,652 tourists traveling in the first three months of this year. A number of tourists dropped to minus 37.71% that was compared to 2004. They got income about 3,679 million Baht. The income dropped to minus 36% that was compared with 2 years ago. The most tourists who visited Phang-nga and Krabi were European.
By: Phuketindex.com, Thailand
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