Visitor arrivals to Thailand have crossed the ten million mark for the first time in 2001…
Visitor arrivals to
Inspite of the global tourism downturn caused by the Sept incident in the United States, Thailand recorded arrivals of 10,061,950 visitors, up by 5.82% over 2000.
Acting Governor and Deputy Governor for Marketing Mrs. Juthamas Siriwan commented, Clearly, Thailand was not as badly affected by the incident in the US and the global tourism slowdown. I think this is a tribute to the hard work of all the government agencies, THAI Airways and all the airlines serving Thailand, the private sector and all our tour operator partners abroad.
She added, There is no doubt that Thai tourism is playing a major role in creating jobs, boosting foreign exchange earnings and facilitating the distribution of income nationwide.
We have successfully positioned ourselves as a peaceful and stable country, backed by high service standards, great tourism products and very good value for money. We can also expect a strong year ahead in 2002.
The following statistical analysis of visitor arrivals in 2001 is by country of nationality, as against country of residence, which will be released later.
In 2001, visitors from East Asia totalled 5,786,403 (market share of 57.51%), Europe 2,508,566 (24.93%), the Americas 682,995 (6.79%), South Asia 350,874 (3.49%), Oceania 420,551 (4.18%), the Middle East 215,148 (2.14%) and Africa 97,413 (0.96%).
Visitor arrivals declined in both September and October after the incident. October`s figure fell to the lowest number of visitors (720,247), due to a sharp decline in arrivals from almost all major markets.
However, arrivals picked up again quickly in November (852,880) and December (1,044,636), the first time that Thailand has crossed the one-million arrivals mark in a month.
East Asia
Visitor arrivals from East Asia grew by 4.34%.
- Malaysia was the best performer with the largest market share of 11.79% (or 1.19 million visitors). A growth rate of 6.67% over 2000 helped this market regain its position as the biggest source of visitor arrivals for Thailand after loosing its position to Japan since 1998.
- Japan recorded total arrivals of 1.18 million (a slight decline of 2.04%) or a market share of 11.70%. It fell back to the second biggest source market for Thailand.
- China and Korean markets grew by 6.31% and 21.58%, respectively.
- Other small markets of ASEAN neighbouring countries like Brunei, Vietnam and Philippines showed the highest growth of 113.09%, 49.05% and 21.19%, respectively.
- Singaporean visitors declined by 5.65%.
Europe
Major European markets did well, resulting in an average growth of 8.98%.
- The two biggest European markets; namely UK and Germany, the fifth and ninth biggest sources of visitors arrivals, experienced mid-level growth of 6.58% and 3.32%, respectively.
- The Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden grew by a solid 36.58% and 58.37%, respectively. Denmark had a much lower growth of 5.28%.
- Visitors from newer markets like Russia and East Europe also grew by 17.39% and 14.63%, respectively, albeit on a small base of visitors.
- Austria, France and Italy were the only three countries with a reduced growth rate of 3.57%, 2.04% and 8.24%.
The Americas
Visitor arrivals from the Americas showed a slight growth of 2.97%.
-
The US was the eighth biggest source market for Thailand. American visitors were badly affected by Sept 11 but still managed to grow slightly by 1.88%. - Canadian visitors to Thailand grew 7.54%.
South Asia
Visitor arrivals from South Asia declined slightly by 0.32%.
- India, which was the biggest source of visitors in South Asia, experienced a low-level growth of 2.52% while Bangladesh showed the highest growth of 10.58%.
- Visitors from Pakistan and Sri Lanka dropped by 25.22% and 0.04%, respectively.
Oceania
Visitor arrivals from Oceania did well with a stronger average growth of 11.03%.
-
Arrivals from Australia and New Zealand showed growths of 11.38% and 9.47%, respectively.
Middle East
Visitors from Middle East grew strongly by 17.95%.
- All major Middle East markets significantly grew, especially Israel (20.77%), Saudi Arabia (15.33%) and Kuwait (10.74%).
- The UAE grew slightly by 2.75%.
Africa
Visitor arrivals from Africa grew strongly by 15.30%.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.