Top Five Nationals Visiting Thailand in 2011

[Guest fountainhall]

Saw the 2011 tourist statistics in the Bangkok Post today. The top five nationalities visiting Thailand were –

 

Malaysia – 2.47 million

China – 1.76 million

Japan – 1.12 million

Russia – 1.01

S. Korea – 805,445

 

I assume the Malaysian figure counts in the heavy cross-border traffic. And presumably the numbers would have been higher but for the floods - and the Japanese tsunami which must have reduced the Japan figure.

 

This year, the TAT is quoted as expecting a 20% increase in S. Korean tourists. Why no other nationality is mentioned, I have no idea!

[Rogie]

Why no other nationality is mentioned, I have no idea!

 

I've seen a figure of 15 m visitors to Thailand:the top five account for about 7 m so that leaves 8 m 'other'.

 

The British FCO says 847,198 Brits visited Thailand in 2010. Either their numbers fell last year to be under the Korean total of 805,445 for 2011 or the numbers given by the FCO are different to those compiled by Thailand, presumably collated by Thai immigration.

 

It would seem logical the whatever the Thai number, it will be more accurate, assuming they are honest and resist the temptation to inflate the numbers.

[Guest fountainhall]

Either their numbers fell last year . . . or the numbers given by the FCO are different to those compiled by Thailand

 

Given the depth of the UK/Europe recession and the government advisories against travelling to Thailand during the flooding, I'm not surprised that UK based visitors would have fallen by at least 5%.

 

However, I just checked on wikipedia and see that for some reason, the tourist numbers for Korea are the figures for 2010! 2011 should be 1.01 million - same as Russia. It gives the UK numbers at 844,000 - a 4.42% increase, but virtually identical to 2 years earlier in 2009.

 

The really big increases between 2009 and 2011 are China - up from 777,500 to 1,760,500 - and India - up from 614,500 to 916,800.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Thailand

 

That said, I once did a year-long consultancy for one the region's national tourism organisations. I saw the way they manipulated figures to suit their government masters. As a result, I just don't place much faith in any official tourism statistics!

[Guest]

Presumably "Top 5 nationalities visiting Thailand" includes visitors for business and other purposes?

I guess that would be a popular reason for visits amongst the top 5 countries.

 

Also, of course even for tourism, all of the countries listed benefit from much shorter flight times to Thailand than we get from West Europe or the US. Even flying from Moscow must be several hours shorter than going from Heathrow or Frankfurt.

 

To put it in perspective, if I could get to Thailand in the same time it takes to fly to Barcelona & for a similar cost, I would be going many times each year.

[pong]

I also get all those stats on my desk and I got them slightly different. The top 10:

Korea was just beaten by RU-arr. nrs were 1,009 (in 1000s). Thus KO was also above the 1 million mark. KOreans mainly favour Phuket-for honeymoons. In the tourist trade they are known to be even more scary as the Japanese.

Rank 6->10, with nrs:

6.India 900 7.Laos 888, 8.AUS 850 9.UK 840 10.US 680

For those who want to know all and dispute it: its daft simple: they just count (or rather: let the computers spew it out) based on what people note on their white arrival cards.

Nrs from UK have in fact risen steeply. All those hype about falling hrs etc-I have noted it in several palces, is just plain wrong-only based on your narrow own world. Here in this part of BKk where I stay since 4 weeks or so its like ion the golden years of the late 90ies with every morning scores of people trundling around with ATM-sized bekpeks to find all palces are full-untill they have cleaned out the rooms of the leavers-many seem unable to even grasp that basic concept.

And for z909-time to fly has not much to do with it. PRICE is much more imprtt-and the real bargains are from West-Eur, notably LON. Russky pay far more for their tix as you do. OZzies-nrs. are more likely to get a severe beating this year-as some of their cheap airls have folded down. Plus that TH is a cheaper alternative to the hi-spenders places for the many people who now have to watch their pounds fly away a little more as before.

[daddydawg]

two observations/questions:

 

#1. Any count on Iranians?

 

#2. "As a result, I just don't place much faith in any official tourism statistics!" Now why in the

world would you not have faith in ANY statistics released by the Thai government?

[Guest fountainhall]

This site has an article about Iranian tourism, but it is dated November 2009. It claims 100,000 tourists in 2009, and that that number will rise to 130,000 in 2010, but I can find no facts to back that up. If the estimate is correct, presumably this year the number will be at least 150,000 and a half - remembering that terrorist who blew off the lower part of his body a week or so ago

 

http://www.thailand-travelonline.com/thailand-travel-news/iranian-tourists-increase-to-100000/1636/

[Moses]

Russky pay far more for their tix as you do. OZzies-nrs. are more likely to get a severe beating this year-as some of their cheap airls have folded down.

 

Yes, tickets Moscow-BKK-Moscow are very cheap past 2 years. "Last minute" economy seat can cost as low as $100 (round trip) in 6 hours before flight and about $300 in 24-hours - this is about charters.

 

Emirates, Quatars, Swiss, KLM, China AL, Korean AL, Aeroflot (ru), S7 (ru), TransAero (ru), AeroSwit (UA) and few more - there are a lot of competitors. They offer tickets on regular flights from $500 (6 month in advance or "last minute").

 

As well disorders in Egypt and Morocco made thus countries less comfortable.

 

Russian airlines have 76 charter flights per week to Thailand from Russia, and all airlines have about 80 regular flights per week as well.

[pong]

Iranians-and Gulfies in general-are for a large part doing medical tourism. In fact I recall that several rich oil-states Like AbuDhabi/KUwait etc even allow their people to fly to BKK for expensive treatment-due to both lower prices here and no real waiting list-capacity.

As for stats: I have studied that-incl. methodology. As I said before-its plain daft simple-its just what people cross out on their white arrival appers that count. The nrs as such are likely undisputed-simple computer counting- even though many of you or on other boards seem to relish that.

And as i walked across Silom-first time for me since I came back to BKK 36 days ago- I could about walk over the heads-so busy. This just a few days after that supposed terrorism where that iranian lost 2 legs which due to some halved out all planes toward Swampy.

[Guest fountainhall]

Iranians-and Gulfies in general-are for a large part doing medical tourism.

Anyone visiting Bumungrad Hospital can see how true this is. The place is has been heaving with Middle Eastern medical tourists for some time.

 

As for stats: I have studied that-incl. methodology. As I said before-its plain daft simple-its just what people cross out on their white arrival appers that count.

 

Theoretically, I agree. However, as I mentioned, I worked for a year as a consultant with a national tourism organisation. I met many times with the Head of the Department responsible for collating inbound statistics so I could get the facts to back up my research. I saw with my own eyes how statistics are 'massaged', numbers inflated or reduced, to fit in with projections earlier provided to their government masters. That is precisely the reason I do not trust officially announced tourism figures. They should be regarded as guides rather than facts.