June tourist arrivals down almost 22.9%

PHUKET CITY: The number of international tourists arriving at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in June was down almost 23% year-on-year, according to the Thai Immigration Bureau.

Figures for June arrivals into Phuket from abroad are not yet available.

June’s international arrivals into Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport were 642,732, down 29.7% from the 833,678 arrivals in June 2008.

Arrivals from East Asian countries dropped 34.7% while European arrivals fell just 6.4%.

East Asia and Europe continue to be biggest sources of foreign tourists to Thailand.

East Asia accounted for almost half of all arrivals in 2008 at 48.7%, though this figure fell to 41.3% in June this year.

The largest percentage losses among major East Asian source countries were Korea (-42.8%), China (-44.4%), Japan (-38.5%) and Hong Kong (-40.1%).

The only East Asian country to record an increase was Burma (+0.5%), from which just 5,829 people entered the country by plane at Suvarnabhumi in June 2009.

Arrival figures were also down among almost all European countries, which accounted for 27.2% of all arrivals in June.

The UK remained the single greatest source country, with 45,797 arrivals in June 2009, down 8.1% year-on-year.

Germany (-6.1%) and France (-9.5%) had similar decreases.

The single greatest drop was from Spain, down 30.5%.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe, up 18.6%, were the sole bright spot.

The June figures follow similar trends in April and May, when total arrivals were down 15.7% and 26.2% respectively.

Total arrivals at Suvarnabhumi in April, May and June were about 731,500, 606,500 and 642,700, respectively.

The biggest decreases in all three months were in the East Asia market, with percentage losses in April, May and June of 25.9%, 40.8% and 34.7%, respectively.

— Stephen Fein