Tourist arrivals drop in October

The Tourism Department stated today foreign tourist arrivals in October dropped 6.1% from the same month last year but a slight improvement from September.

But for the first 10 months of the year, arrivals are down by 8.7%

The department said tourist arrivals in September were off 7% year-on-year and by 10.3% for the first nine months.

It said the October figures were bolstered by improvement in arrivals from East Asia, which were up 15.1% from the same month last year, due mainly to sharp rise in arrivals from China.

But arrivals for the first 10 months are still down 12.9% from a year earlier.

Arrivals from China rose 67% in the month, to 501,043 from 299,982 a year earlier, but are still down 11.1% for the January-October period.

Arrivals from Japan also fell 10.1% in October, same as South Korea (-15%) and Taiwan (-8.5%) .

Arrivals from Europe last month dropped 10.8% from last year, but are up 1% for the year to Oct 31, helped by gains from Eastern Europe, a relatively new market.

However, visitors from key market like Russia plunged 23.2% in October and showed zero growth for the first 10 months.

Arrivals from the US also were down 6.6% in October and down 4.6% for the year.

Thai PBS

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