Longer stays from European guests helped drive room revenue in the first quarter in southern provinces, as room rates set a new record despite small numbers of Chinese tourists.

"The first quarter of this year will likely be the best high season in five years," said Pongsakorn Ketprapakorn of the Tourism Council of Phangnga.

Mr Pongsakorn said many hotels in the province, especially in Khao Lak, can charge higher room rates of between 6,000-10,000 baht per night, exceeding the average of 5,000 baht in 2019, which was a peak tourism year for Thailand.

The majority of tourists are Germans, Scandinavians and Russians, who chose the province's peaceful atmosphere.

So far, hotels have been recording more than a 90% occupancy rate, or are even fully booked, while guests are also spending more on food and other services in the hotels.

Although the Chinese market recorded the largest number of arrivals in Thailand, with over 987,000 of 5.2 million tourists, Phangnga rarely gained this market, said Mr Pongsakorn.

Many Chinese tourists opt for more lively and urban experiences, such as Phuket and Bangkok, instead of a nature-oriented destination like Phangnga. The Chinese were only 5-10% of the foreign tourist market for the province, he said.

Meanwhile, Krabi still lacks direct flights from China, which previously had services from 5-6 Chinese cities before the pandemic.

However, the province now has flights from Stockholm, Warsaw and Prague, with regular flights from major markets like Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia.

The Krabi Tourism Association said the top markets for Krabi at present were Sweden, Malaysia, Poland and the UK.