Arrivals jumped 21% to 2.7m in October

Arrivals jumped 21% to 2.7m in October

A tourist prays at Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on Oct 16, 2017. (Reuters photo)
A tourist prays at Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on Oct 16, 2017. (Reuters photo)

International tourist arrivals surged 20.9% in October from a year ago, underpinned by visitors from East Asia, the government said on Monday.

The number of foreign arrivals stood at 2.72 million in October, Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent-secretary of the tourism and sports ministry, said in a statement.

Trailing East Asian visitors last month were those from Europe, South Asia and Americas respectively. 

The Chinese remained the largest group, followed by the Malaysians and Laotians while the largest spenders were the Chinese, Russians and Malaysians, respectively.

For the January-October period, tourist arrivals were 28.8 million, up 6.7% year-on-year.

The ministry said last month that it expected 33-34 million foreign tourists this year, compared with an earlier forecast of 35 million.

For January to September, local tourists generated revenue of 695.2 billion baht, up 6.3%.

In 2016, there were a record 32.6 million foreign visitors. Tourism accounts for 12% of the economy.

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