PHUKET: The four-day holiday that began on Friday is expected to generate 1.8 billion baht in revenue from tourist spending in this island province, with 60% hotel occupancy expected, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
About 70,000 hotel rooms, or 70% of the total on the island, are now available for booking and the average room occupancy rate is 44.5%, said Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, director of the TAT’s Phuket office.
She predicted that occupancy would increase to 60% during the long weekend that runs through Monday, a substitute for Visakha Bucha Day, which falls on Sunday. Friday, the day of the Royal Ploughing Ceremony, was a holiday for government employees but not the private sector.
The average stay during the long holiday was expected to be 2.5 nights per person, said Ms Nanthasiri.
Seven airlines are now serving Phuket with an average of 100 inbound flights and 15,000 arrivals per day. Twenty-seven international flights carry an average of 4,000 passengers a day.
The tourist arrivals were expected to generate around 1.83 billion baht during the holiday weekend, said Ms Nanthasiri.
Southern Thailand, with its beautiful natural resources and many tourist attractions, is especially popular among local tourists between March and May every year, which is the summer season in Thailand. However, the Covid-19 outbreak has badly hit business during the past two years, she said.
Now that the government has eased many Covid restrictions, the tourism industry and other businesses in the South are coming to life again, she added.