Just over 300,000 Chinese tourists will visit Thailand to celebrate Chinese New Year, the Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports announced earlier this week.
Basing its estimates on flights and booking trends, 15 to 21 February, the ministry said 888,472 foreigners would visit the country of which 304,192 would be Chinese tourists, up by around 20% when compared with the Chinese New Year week in 2017.
During the Chinese New Year holiday, 20,677 flights will serve routes between China and Thailand, an increase of 6% over last year’s festive season.
The increase is driven by new flights that originate in second tier two cities in China and fly package tour groups to secondary cities in Thailand.
Minister of Tourism and Sports, Weerasak Kowsurat, says he wants to reduce the concentration of tourists visiting popular destinations such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket.
Around 90% of all Chinese tourists continue to travel to Bangkok, Chonburi (Pattaya), Phuket and Chiang Mai, with just 10% visiting secondary destinations such as Chiang Rai, and Samui.
During the week February 15 to 21 tourism receipts on the estimated 888,472 foreign tourist visits could reach around THB 48,452 million. Of that total, 304,192 Chinese visitors should generate earnings of THB 15,978 million.
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