The Tourism Authority of Thailand is anticipating 825,000 foreigners will visit Thailand during the festival celebrating the Chinese New Year, which this year falls on Jan 28.

The projection is that arrivals from Jan 27 to Feb 2 will be up by 4% on the 794,000 visitors during the festival period in 2016.

TAT governor Yutthasak Supasorn said this would generate tourism revenue of around 19.1 billion baht, up 10% from 17 billion baht last year.

 

Around 240,000 mainland Chinese tourists were expected during the festival, down 9% from the previous year, and were expected to spend 6.49 billion baht.

He said travel from the mainland by chartered flights had dropped by over 20% since the crackdown on so-called zero-dollar tours.

Chinese tourists from other places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia were expected to rise by 5-11% year-on-year to around 149,000 visitors.  

In total, about 389,000 Chinese tourists were expected during the festival.

He believed Thailand is still the top destination for Chinese tourists during the lunar new year holiday, followed by the US, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.

Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan are the two most popular provinces, according to the TAT.