Thailand has achieved record-breaking visitor arrivals, crossing the 22 million mark for the first time in 2012. Figures tabulated by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports for January to December 2012 show total arrivals by nationality of 22,303,065, up 15.98 percent over 2011.
Commenting on the performance, TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said, ”We are overjoyed to have achieved this result in the year the people of Thailand commemorated the 85th birthday of His Majesty the King. It is also a tribute to the cooperation and creativity of the entire Thai travel & tourism industry for the huge effort that has been made to ensure that travel & tourism remains a leading industry for job creation, distribution of income nationwide and contribution to culture, heritage and environmental preservation.
The governor said that the primary contributor to this result was the prevalence of global, regional and local peace and stability. Last year, the world was generally at peace and there were no major geopolitical, economic, environmental or natural disasters and no health pandemics. “Travel & tourism can only flourish worldwide if the underlying conditions that support it remain free of disturbance and disruption. That is one of the most important lessons for the entire industry to learn worldwide”, he said.
The highlight of the results was the fact that six countries, five of which are within the Asia-Pacific region, are now producing more than one million annual visitor arrivals. These are Malaysia, China, Japan, Korea, India and Russia.
The following performance analysis by market is based on the figures tabulated so far:
OVERVIEW: Visitors from East Asia totalled 12,502,194 (+20.84%), Europe 5,617,817 (+10.12%), the Americas 1,080,148 (+13.40%), South Asia 1,289,641 (+11.36%), Oceania 1,046,753 (+12.13%), Middle East 604,659 (+0.58%) and Africa 161,853 (+17.36%).
» Read Complete News.....(You need to login first to read complete news). New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News