Bangkok, December 29, 2007 – Thailand has been voted “The Best Destination for Leisure — Short Haul” by Chinese readers of TravelWeekly China Magazine. It is the third such award won by Thailand this year in China.
The award was presented during the gala award presentation on 14 December, 2007, at the Hilton Beijing, China. Accepting the award, Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Mrs. Phornsiri Manoharn, said, “This award belongs to the entire Thai travel and tourism industry for making Thailand such a wonderful destination for Chinese visitors.”
The “Best Destination” was judged in terms of superior product and excellent service, outstanding efforts and professionalism in catering to the needs of Chinese travellers.
Set up in 2001, Travel Weekly China is one of China’s top travel trade publications with a circulation of 85,000 travel professionals in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as audited by BPA.
This year, Thailand has won three awards from the Chinese market:
Top Destination for Hospitality for the 2007 World Traveller Awards by World Traveller Media (China) in December 2007;
Promotion of the Travel Destination Award — Thailand 2007 by Travel Agent Magazine in December 2007;
Best ADS (Approved Destination Status) — Thailand 2007 by National Geographic (Chinese language) in April 2007.
In 2006, China was the fourth largest source of international visitors, with a total 1,033,305, a market share of 7.48% of total arrivals.
Most were first-time visitors, comprising 57.48% of total Chinese visitors, or up 23.75%. Repeat visitors were up 56.18%. FIT travellers were up 42.33% while group tour visitors declined 31.11%.
With an average expenditure per person per day on 4,525 baht and an average length of stay of 5.75 days, Chinese visitors generated tourism revenue of 26,890.26 million baht for Thailand, up 31.64% over 2005.
In January-November 2007, Chinese visitor arrivals at Suvarnabhumi International Airport tabulated by nationality totalled 705,378. It is projected that they will again cross the one million mark in 2007.
As of October 2007, there are 143 direct weekly flight services linking Bangkok and 12 major Chinese cities. Chinese citizens can obtain visa-on-arrival facilities at all international airports in Thailand and stay for up to 15 days.
