Tourists enjoy splashing water on Khao San Road in Bangkok on April 1 (Photo: Bangkok Post) Bangkok (VNA) - TheTourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) estimates that about 996,000 foreigntourists will visit the Southeast Asian country between April 26 and May 5, known as the Golden Week holidays in Japan, during which Chinese tourists also prefer to travel overseas.
The estimated number ofarrivals is about 29% higher than the statistics from last year, said ChattanKunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT Deputy Governor for Asia and South Pacific markets.
He said foreign tourists during this period would generate around 32.2 billionTHB (870 million USD) for local entrepreneurs, a jump of 35% year-on-year.
Chattan said about 230,000 of the 996,000 will be Chinese, attributing the surge to a visa waiver dealbetween Thailand and China, which allows their citizens to stay for amaximum of 30 days.
Another factor will be theadditional flights to Thailand being offered by various airlines during the May Day holiday, he added.
Online travel platform Agoda,meanwhile, announced that its survey of Japanese tourists found that Thailandis in second place among popular foreign destinations during the Golden Week. TheRepublic of Korea (RoK) ranked first while Taiwan (China), the US, and Vietnam takethird to fifth place, respectively.
According to Thailand’s Ministryof Tourism and Sports, the Songkran Festival, from April 1 to 21, generated atotal income of 140.335 billion THB, higher than the ministry’sprevious estimate of 132 billion THB.
Over 1.92 million foreigntourists visited Thailand during the festival, up 37.54% against the sameperiod last year.
The top 10 sources of foreigntourist arrivals during the festival were China, Malaysia, India, Russia, the RoK, Laos, the UK, Taiwan (China), the US and Indonesia./.
