Tourism Minister: Chinese New Year to reel income of 12 billion baht

BANGKOK, Jan 26 (TNA) -- Ministry of Tourism and Sports has projected that the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations could generate over 10 billion baht. Minister of Tourism and Sports Ms Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said the number of Chinese tourists would increase drastically during the Chinese New Year celebrations between January 27 to February 4 with around 257,673 Chinese visitors expecting to arrive in Thailand, an increase of 10.87 per cent from last year and would generate over 12.46 billion baht worth income, a hike of 13.09 per cent. According to the minister, statistics between January 17-22 showed that the number of Chinese tourist arrival on average per day stood at 33,142 persons, growing by 21.46 per cent, when compared to the same period of last year. The number Chinese tourist arrival on a daily average was the highest on January 21, standing at 37,414 persons. Meanwhile, the ratio of Chinese tourists traveling with a tour group or individually has also changed, with individual visitor spending up to 52,000 baht per head, signalling more Chinese tourists are traveling to Thailand on their own, which also means that more quality tourists are arriving in the country. The minister further noted that the total number tourist arrivals to the country between January 1-22 have reached 2,230,073, expanding by 6.46 percent when compared with last year's figure, reeling in an in come of 116.923 billion baht, hiking by 9.13 per cent. (TNA)