VISITOR numbers and tourism expenditure are expected to swell by up to 20 per cent during the Songkran festival, which will be celebrated from April 12-16.
Some 2.7 million domestic and foreign visitors are forecast to spend 11.1 billion baht (US$377.7 million) during Songkran, an increase of 10 per cent and 20 per cent respectively on last year’s figures, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said earlier this week.
TAT predicts two million domestic travellers will spend 4.5 billion baht during the festival, while 678,000 foreign visitors will generate 6.7 million baht in receipts.
“Thanks to domestic political stability and a generally good economic situation, both within Thailand and for our key source markets in the Asia-Pacific, we expect a record number of visitors nationwide,” said TAT governor, Suraphon Svetasreni.
China is expected to be the major source market during the festivities, with arrivals set to top 120,000 during April, according to Virat Chatturaputpitak, vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
“Since January we have seen 100,000 Chinese travellers arriving every month. We expect this to increase by about 20 per cent during Songkran,” he said.
Asian tourists will dominate international arrivals, but the number of South Korean visitors is expected to fall due to recent increased political tensions with North Korea, noted Virat.
Hotel occupancy in major destinations such as Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Pattaya and Phuket has already reached 70 per cent, according to TAT figures, which also report 177 charter flights, representing about 31,973 seats, scheduled to arrive from key markets including China and Russia over the period.
However, surging arrivals may overload already-faltering manpower and transport capacities.
“We’re facing a big problem with staff and buses,” said Virat. “There has not been enough buses or tour guides for the past few months since we’ve seen the increase in tourists from China.
“Something has to be done about this soon or it will damage the Thai tourism industry.”
