Phuket gifted B3.5bn boost over Chinese New Year

PHUKET: The Chinese New Year holidays brought a much-welcomed boost of 3.5 billion baht to the local economy this year, the chief of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office has announced.

The island attracted more tourists who also spent more than those who came last year, Anoma Wongyai, director of TAT Phuket, told the Phuket Gazette.

“Phuket had 115,000 tourists during the holidays this year, from February 18-20, compared with 90,000 last year,” she said.

“Also, the average amount spent per person was 6,700 baht, up from 5,000 baht per person last year.”

The difference was an impressive 900 million baht, Ms Anoma pointed out.

“The total income generated last year was 2.4bn baht,” she said.

The good news runs contrary to a prediction by Krisada Tansakul, vice president of Phuket Tourist Association (PTA), just last week.

Mr Krisada forecast a fall in the income generated by the Chinese New Year holidays this year (story here).

“We have seen a 5-10% year-on-year increase in Chinese tourists during the festival period,” Mr Krisada told the Gazette.

“However, we are expecting to see the amount of revenue generated to be less than in 2014, due to Chinese tourists spending less per capita than Western tourists.”

Ms Anoma conceded, however, that fewer tourists stayed at hotels in Phuket during the holidays, but the shortfall was compensated by the higher spending per capita.

“The tourists who did come spent more, and generated greater income for local businesses,” she said.

— Voratuss Intasee