Songkran a big splash with Chinese | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

Songkran a big splash with Chinese

Published: 4 Mar 2013 at 18.57
Online news:

The three-day Songkran festival next month is expected to attract a record number of Chinese tourists to Chiang Mai that will generate between 400 and 500 million baht in tourism revenue for the northern province, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

An estimated 60,000 holidaymakers were expected to arrive in the province during the festival, Wisoot Buachoom, director of TAT Northern Region Office, said.

Mr Wisoot said he was confident that Chiang Mai’s 40,000 hotel rooms would be enough to accommodate the growing number of tourists.

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Victor
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Discussion 8 : 05 Mar 2013 at 17.518
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Time for the authorities to declair its annual Road Safety Week that never work again.
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boons
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Discussion 7 : 05 Mar 2013 at 13.067
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D1: You mean, sort of like the way Thais "took" the idea?
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nitnoi
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Discussion 6 : 05 Mar 2013 at 05.216
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Water festival will also generate crimes from small pick pocket to kidnapping to lose life. Should have all the warning posted every where so visitors will end up with fun and cool off but not tragedies.
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upena
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Discussion 5 : 05 Mar 2013 at 05.125
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@ploydonut - Songkran did not originate in Thailand.

@TAT - your numbers are completely make-believe
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jacksprat
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Discussion 4 : 04 Mar 2013 at 22.284
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Songkran originated from India's Holi, and came to Thailand by way of Burma (which many changes along the way). It was unknown outside of the north until well into the 20th century.
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loopholes
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Discussion 3 : 04 Mar 2013 at 21.353
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D1# By the way, do you really know the origin of Thais ? Please save your comments and get the facts straighten first !
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The Dark Side
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Discussion 2 : 04 Mar 2013 at 20.432
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OK let me get these numbers straight as obviously the Northern TAT Man With The Plan does not have a clue about simple addition and subtraction.
You have 40,000 rooms available. You have 60,000 people arriving each day. The festival runs about 5 days. So where the hell are 300,000 chinese going to stay? Granted Chinese are used to living in communes just like Thai's, but on your holiday? I think his numbers are not adding up. I think that they need about 150,000 rooms to accommodate these visitors. Just more hype from TAT.
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ploydonut
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Discussion 1 : 04 Mar 2013 at 19.491
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We must protect the tradition for the Thai people for play the water, otherwise China take the idea and do the Songkran in their own country, and then people stop come to Thailand during Songkran.
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