MORE SCANDINAVIAN TOURISTS COMING TO PHUKET THIS COMING HIGH SEASON
With an extra 34 flights to Phuket and Krabi weekly there will be an influx of tourists from the Scandinavian countries this coming high season.
Tour operator TUI Nordic says that Scandinavian tourist will return to Phuket and Krabi between December and March because the Swedish and Norwegian currencies are growing stronger.
Officials at Phuket International Airport were not able to confirm the additional flights yesterday.
But if all goes as expected, the 120,000 extra visitors will mean a return to the same figures as in 2007, when the economy, just like the tourists, were flying.
The recent figures for August at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, where many of the passengers flying to Phuket and Krabi transit, show that travel from Europe is booming again.
While the total amount of visitors from Europe year on year rose by more than 12 percent, there were some dramatic increases. Arrivals from Holland (16,997) rose 36,26 percent, Germany (37,113) leapt 27,15 percent while Austria (5,401) jumped a whopping 25,02 percent. Almost as healthy figures were noted from Eastern Europe, Switzerland and Italy.
Offsetting these rises, restricting the overall Suvarnabhumi position to a 5,17 percent drop compared to 2008, was a downturn of 12,31 percent in travel from East Asia.
Tourists from Korea, China, Hong Kong, and especially Malaysia preferred to stay home or go elsewhere. The Japanese market stayed around the same figure, slipping only a mere 1,87 percent.
Americans (38,952) also came in similar numbers. But Australians (35,397) arriving in Bangkok slid by 11,70 percent.
Middle Eastern countries collectively turned away from Thailand in August. Arrivals from that region dropped with 34,828 or 35,20 percent. This was more than made up for by a boost in visitors from South Asia with a total of 64,354 visitors or an increase of 11,68 percent.
Looking ahead to Phuket’s coming high season, the CEO of TUI Nordic says: ‘Despite the global recession, we still see a great interest in Thailand this coming winter. At present we have sold more than 60 percent of our tour packages’.
It is a pity that the prices being paid are 10 percent down compared to last year. But the most important factor is that the seats on Phuket bound airplanes are being filled again.