Boom time for hotels, airlines
Major airlines are fast running out of seats while hotel rooms at key destinations are expected to be fully booked up next week as Asian tourists flock here to celebrate Songkran.
Ittirit Kinglake, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said yesterday that this year’s festival would generate tourism revenue of more than Bt44 billion, of which Bt42 billion would be from the domestic market.
About 400,000 Chinese are coming, judging from the shortage of seats on airlines operating in and out of China as well as charter flights.
From Shanghai alone, more than 150 chartered flights are preparing to carry 26,000 tourists to Thailand during the holiday.
“Chinese tourists love to visit Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Samui. This huge market results in the overall hotel business at major destinations almost hitting full capacity,” he said.
Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said the airline’s average load factor during the festival should pass 90 per cent.
The low-cost carrier is seeing a flood of reservations from Hong Kong and Singapore. In the domestic market, second-tier cities like Chiang Rai, Nan and Loei are becoming popular destinations.
Thai Airways International is set to lay on more than 30 flights to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi to serve extra demand from 10,000 passengers during the festival.
Juthaporn Rerngronasa, acting governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand and deputy governor for international marketing for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Americas, said 2.6 million tourists are expected to celebrate Songkran in Thailand this year.
Sharp rise in revenue
This includes 470,000 foreign visitors arriving from April11-15, up 39 per cent from last |year.
TAT also estimates revenue to surge 52 per cent to Bt7.5 billion from average spending of Bt15,960 per person per trip, which will be an increase of 10 per cent.
On the domestic front, TAT expects Thais to make 2.16 million trips, up 8 per cent, during the festival and help boost the economy by Bt7.01 billion, up 6 per cent.
