The most important contributor to this growth was arrivals from China which, for the first time, crossed the one million arrivals mark in the six-month period to record a total of 1,124,234, up by a robust 28.87% over January-June 2011.
Here is the listing of the Top Ten Source Markets of Visitors to Thailand in the first half of 2012:
Below is a summary of the overall figures for the period of January – June 2012, with the percentage change over the same period of 2011, tabulated on arrivals by nationality at all points of entry into Thailand:
Overview:
East Asia recorded 5,486,941 arrivals (market share 52.27% of total arrivals). Europe 2,971,939 (market share 28.31%); The Americas 545,042 (5.19% share); South Asia 632,976 (6.03% share); Oceania 477,894 (4.55% share); Middle East 296,653 (2.83% share); and Africa 85,344 (0.81% share).
East Asia (+5.73%):
• Japan is the fourth largest source of visitor arrivals to Thailand with total of 630,058, up 11.47%.
• Korea is the fifth largest source of visitor arrivals with total of 540,523, up 4.88%.
• Arrivals from the neighbouring ASEAN countries also showed good growth, e.g., Vietnam (+24.96%), Brunei Darussalam (+20.15%), Cambodia (+12.32%), Myanmar (+12.30%), Laos (+9.16%), Indonesia (+4.40%), Singapore (+4.53%). Only the Philippines was down (-3.44%).
Europe (+11.12%):
• Russia remained ahead of the UK and Germany as the largest source market from Europe, with total arrivals of 634,312, up 12.21%.
• The UK and Germany ranked the second and third largest sources of visitor arrivals – 433,989 (+1.52%) and 357,472 (+9.71%), respectively.
• French visitor arrivals totalled 304,717 (+17.11%).
• Arrivals from the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark grew by 17.59%, 16.45% and 14.84%, respectively.
The Americas (+10.58%):
• The US is the tenth top source-market of arrivals to Thailand with a total of 379,430 (+8.63%).
• Canadian visitors grew by 10.62% to 114,678.
• Brazilian visitors grew by 23.65% to 14,965.
South Asia (+5.83%):
• India is the biggest source of visitors in South Asia and the sixth largest source of total arrivals. Arrivals were up 6.32% to 504,634 arrivals.
• Pakistani visitor arrivals totalled 34,809 (-2.65%).
• Bangladeshi visitor arrivals totalled 33,494 (-0.20%).
• Visitors from Sri Lanka grew by 20.85% to 32,878.
Oceania (+9.45%):
• Arrivals from Australia and New Zealand were up 9.63% to 427,096 and 8.15% to 49,365, respectively.
Middle East (-0.15%):
• The UAE experienced a decline of -0.76%.
• Visitors from other Middle East markets (such as Iran) were down 7.08%.
• However, other Middle East source markets were up, especially Saudi Arabia (50.51%) and Kuwait (19.97%). Arrivals from Egypt were up by 22.49%.
Africa (+28.88%):
• The most important source market of South Africa was up 13.99% to 35,319.
• Other countries are also showing considerable promise with a total growth of 41.97% to 50,025.
For 2012, TAT has set a target of 20.5 million total international visitors. This is a conservative estimate but is certain to be exceeded if the international economic and geopolitical situation remains stable.
