UK visitors to Thailand rise despite unrest
UK visitors are on the up in Thailand despite the political unrest, with tourists opting to avoid Bangkok and fly direct to resorts.
On the opening day of Thailand Travel Mart in Bangkok the leaders of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) gave the first stats that show the effect of the recent political unrest.
Juthaporn Perngronasa, deputy governor for international marketing reassured the travelling media with headline figures of ‘UK in-bound visitors between January and April are up 5.7% to 340,000 and are matched by an increase from Ireland up 11.4% to 20,000’.
Whilst tourism in general is down in the month of May by 10%, the stats showed that the majority of this has been by missing visitors from Asia and not Europe.
Further analysis of the figures also shows that the brunt of any reduction in trade has been felt in the capital rather than in the tourism hot spots of Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai and Koh Saumi whose figures are all up in 2014.
This implied that direct flights to these destinations have been become more popular as visitors try to avoid Bangkok.
Earlier this week the Military Government now known as the NCPO (National Council for Peace and Order) removed any curfews from three key resort destination
TAT has now requested that the curfews be removed from Krabi, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Phangna, Khao Lak and Koh Chang on June, 11.
Attendance figures for TTM revealed that 314 buyers have attended the show with strong appearances from China and UK.
Recovery campaigns across the globe, including a 1000-strong media mega fam, are to be announced once budgets have been agreed with the NCPO with the emphasis on the continuing, Land of Smiles = Business as usual.
TravelMole’s Graham McKenzie, pictured outside the royal palace with unarmed military, is at TTM. He reports visiting various tourist attractions with no incidents.
Diane
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