The Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand is feeling optimistic about tourism in 2023, predicting 12 million visitors for the island. According to a Phuket Express report, Phuket TAT director Nathasiri Ronnasiri says that figure equates to what was seen in pre-pandemic days.
The estimate would be about half of what the TAT office in Bangkok expects for the entire country this year – 25 million arrivals.
“We are expecting 12 million tourists to visit Phuket this year. This will be roughly the same number of tourists as before Covid-19.”
Nathasiri adds that over 46% of 2022 tourists were from overseas, while over 53% were Thai.
“Last year, the number of visitors in Phuket was 9,260,657. Of those numbers 46.4% were foreign tourists and 53.6% were Thai tourists. Phuket has generated 74.4% of its income from foreign tourists.”
Phuket experienced a significant surge in international arrivals during December and January, although the number of visitors was still less than half that of 2019. The island is also discovering new markets and has had to rely more heavily on other markets, including the Russians and Middle-Eastern countries, in the absence of the Chinese.
Currently, the number of Russians arriving in Phuket each day are three times the number of the second most numerous arrivals, from India, with arrivals from the UK, Kazakhstan and Australia filling up the top 5.
“In this coming Summer there will be more Israeli tourists visiting Phuket as well, a relatively new market for us. Some of these visitors have been visiting Phuket before and some are new tourists.”
SOURCE: The Phuket Express
