As many as 400,000 Chinese tourists are coming to Thailand this Songkran.

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, as many as 400,000 Chinese tourists are coming to Thailand during the Songkran long holidays from April 11th – 15th.

Ms. Srisuda Wanapinyosak, the TAT’s executive director for East Asia, said Thailand continues to draw attention from Chinese travelers even after the Chinese New Year’s period, which saw approximately 500,000 Chinese visiting the Kingdom.

She indicated that the number of flights booked to Thailand has already covered 95-110% of seat capacities, particularly on the Shanghai-Thailand route which sees 156 chartered flights accommodating 26,000 passengers in total.

Favorite destinations among the Chinese are Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Samui, and Phuket.

Meanwhile, Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association (TCTA) Honorary President Wichit Prakobkosol said he anticipated a large number of Chinese travelers to visit Thailand, continuing the momentum from the Chinese New Year holiday in February.

At the same time, TAT Deputy Director on Domestic Marketing Anuphab Theerarat speculated that during the upcoming holiday, tourism would generate 14.5 billion baht in revenue, a growth of 26%. Out of that number, seven billion baht would come from domestic market and the remaining sum from foreigners.

Mr. Anuphab projected that the Songkran holiday season would see a total of 2.6 million visitors, of whom 2.15 million will be locals, an increase of 8%, and the remainder of 470,000 will be foreigners representing an increase of 39% from last year.