“For the Songkran period, from April 13-16, there will be a total of 223,452 visitors, both staying overnight and not staying overnight,” the TAT Phuket Director Lerdchai Wangtrakoondee told The Phuket News on Friday (Apr 7).
Mr Lerdchai was sure of Phuket’s readiness to welcome domestic and international travelers as both expected to arrive in large numbers for long or short stays.
“There are 101,556 hotel rooms in Phuket. Having studied bookings at 30% of them (chosen at random) we received an average duration of stay of three nights per person,” TAT Phuket Director said.
A separate analysis with cross-checking was made for arrivals via Phuket International Airport during Songkran period. According to Mr Lerdchai, the average cabin load on Phuket-bound flights stands at about 85%, according to the bookings.
According to the schedule, 249 domestic flights and 258 international flights are expected on Apr 13-16. Most international flights will be from China, but bringing free independent travelers (FIT) rather than visitors on package tours.
“Each day on average there will be 65 international flights and 62 domestic flights landing in Phuket,” Mr Lerdchai said.
According to the TAT Phuket Director, the number of visitors to the island this year is already 39.8% higher compared to the same period of 2019. The income generated in the first quarter stands at B150bn and is 27.58% over the last pre-COVID January-March period.
However, Mr Lerdchai expressed his concerns about the safety of tourists visiting Phuket and asked local people to help by being good hosts.
“There are a lot of tourists coming to Phuket and some safety issues result from this, particularly road accidents involving tourists. I would like to ask Phuket people to help take care of tourist safety and be good hosts to welcome them. This is not only Phuket’s concern but a nationwide priority,” he said.
Nationwide, the TAT estimates the Songkran holiday could generate B13.5bn baht for domestic tourism based on 3.81mn trips (116% of the 2019 level). Foreign tourism is estimated to generate B5.03bn with 305,000 tourists arriving during the Songkran holiday week (60% of the 2019 level).
The TAT projects a hotel occupancy rate nationwide of 74%, with the southern region ranking No.1 at 80% because of popular beach destinations and the "We Travel Together" scheme.
Chinese arrivals on the rise
Earlier this week Phuket Immigration released statistics of the number of international arrivals landing in Phuket in March, with Russian nationals still holding the top and Chinese securing the second line.
According to the report, released on Tuesday (Apr 4), a total of 363,752 travelers from abroad entered the country via Phuket International Airport from Mar 1-31.
Of those 94,308 were Russian nationals, with a further 45,147 arriving from China. Indian nationals placed third with 28,431 arrivals, followed by arrivals from Kazakhstan (18,201) and Germany (16,788).
As per new reporting standard of Phuket Immigration, the report marked 418,830 foreigners as registered as staying at an accommodation venue in Phuket.
Also included in the report was the number of foreigners arriving in Phuket by sea, with a total of 27,316 foreigners cleared to enter Thailand via Phuket from Mar 1-31.
There were 12 cruise liners and 79 private yachts arriving in Phuket during the month, along with 25 cargo ships but no new fishing boats registered as officially entering the area.
The top 5 nationalities of marine traffic entries were Singapore (7,986), Malaysia (5,663), United States (3,477), India (1,719) and Indonesia (1,492).
Foreign crime in the spotlight
Also included in the Apr 5 report was a notice informing how many foreigners had been given warnings or deported under the new system of ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ cards, launched earlier this month.
Four foreigners had been issued ‘yellow’ card warnings: Two French citizens, one Ukrainian national and one Swedish national.
A second yellow card for any of the four may now see them deported from Thailand.
Two foreigners had been arrested and received ‘red cards’, meaning deportation: one a Swedish national, the other a French national.
The report marked four categories of offenses relating to foreigners: Group 1) Offenses relating to body and life; Group 2) Offenses relating to property; Group 3) Special cases; and Group 4) Cases in which the state is the victim.
Ten foreigners had been deemed to have committed Group 4 offenses, while Group 1 and Group 2 had one violator each.
A further four foreigners had been found to have breached immigration law by failing to register their place of residence, as required by Section 38 of the Immigration Act.
Kakka2 | 09 April 2023 - 15:17:57