PHUKET: Tourism in the southern island province has returned to its pre-Covid level by revenue, while the number of visitors remains lower than before the pandemic due partly to fewer returning Chinese tourists, according to local authorities.
Phuket deputy governor Danai Sunantharod said last year 5.6 million people visited Phuket, including 3.3 million foreigners. The number of visitors by province was second only to Bangkok.
Last year visitors spent about 193 billion baht in Phuket, he said.
Lertchai Wangtrakuldee, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's Phuket director, said about 6 million people visited Phuket from January to May, adding about 196 billion baht to the local economy.
Sueksit Suwannaditsakul, president of the Southern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, said that hotel occupancy rates in Phuket were at about 70% from January to May and 80% during the first quarter of this year which was part of the high season.
There were about 3,000 hotels with about 200,000 rooms in Phuket. Of them, 900 hotels with 70,000 rooms were legally registered, he said.
Thanawat Ongcharoen, vice president of the Phuket Tourist Association, said although this year's arrivals were at about 70% of the pre-Covid numbers, they were much better than the numbers of visitors last year and during the pandemic.
However, Phuket's tourism-related revenue this year returned to its pre-Covid level because of longer stays by European and Russian visitors, he said.
The present number of Chinese visitors formed only 30% of the pre-Covid volume in Phuket. Most were independent travellers while the number of tourist groups from China remained small. Chinese visitors were previously the biggest group of foreign tourists in Phuket, Mr Thanawat said.
He also said that the numbers of Indian and Australian visitors had reached their pre-Covid levels and many tourists were arriving from the Middle East because they liked the country's rainy season.