Extrapolating from this, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) estimates that seven million tourists – both domestic and international – will have visited Phuket by the end of this year.
The new Director of the TAT’s Phuket Office, Chanchai Doungjit, speaking at a meeting in Provincial Hall yesterday (September 3), said flights coming to Phuket are full this year, even in the “green” season.
The increase in the number of international flights arriving has gone up in line with the number of tourists, rising 28 per cent from last year. Most of the additional flights are from the Middle East and North Asian countries such as South Korea and China.
Last year, more than half of the four million international tourists who came to Phuket were stamped in by Phuket Immigration directly, an indicator that Phuket itself (as opposed to Thailand) is an increasingly popular destination.
“The rate of growth is very positive,” said Mr Chanchai. “Though the number of European tourist has fallen between 3 and 5 per cent this year due to the impact of the Euro crisis, the Asian market is going up, replacing the missing European tourists.”
He noted that although Europe as a whole has fallen, the numbers of tourists from France, Britain and Germany have remained stable.
Their numbers, however, have been far outstripped by the new markets. In the first half 142,582 tourists arrived from China and 140,297 from Russia. In third place was Australia with 121,916, followed by South Korea with 102,021 and Sweden in fifth place with 80,427.
According to TAT’s statistics, the biggest growth markets were China and Russia, which both more than doubled. China increased 107 per cent and Russia 105 per cent, followed by South Korea (30) Malaysia (25) and Sweden (25).