Phuket Airport passenger arrivals dip

by Bill Barnett, c9Hotelworks.com

To date, 2019 is shaping up to be a slightly volatile year for tourism to the island.

Passenger arrivals at Phuket International Airport rose 1% year-on-year in January, but took a step backwards in February with a substantial 6% decline.

While we are still early in the year, overall visitor arrivals to Thailand on a country-wide basis have lost ground compared to the same period in 2018, so in reality Phuket’s challenges match those of the entire country.

Registering the sharpest slowdown has been the Mainland Chinese segment.

Thailand’s government has extended a visa free incentive and is also implementing measures to stimulate domestic tourism which may include more tax breaks for local travel.

One notable change that may stimulate some travel demand has been the recent weakening of the Thai baht against a number of currencies.

Thailand NewsTourism NewsTravel

Thaiger Talk

Join the conversation and have your say on Thailand news published on The Thaiger.

Thaiger Talk is our new Thaiger Community where you can join the discussion on everything happening in Thailand right now.

Please note that articles are not posted to the forum instantly and can take up to 20 min before being visible. Click for more information and the Thaiger Talk Guidelines.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Bill Barnett

Bill Barnett has over 30 years of experience in the Asian hospitality and property markets. He is considered to be a leading authority on real estate trends across Asia, and has sat at almost every seat around the hospitality and real estate table. Bill promotes industry insight through regular conference speaking engagements and is continually gathering market intelligence. Over the past few years he has released four books on Asian property topics.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply