PHUKET: The five-day Songkran holiday is expected to generate about 3 billion baht in revenue from tourist spending on this island province.
The forecast was made by Tourism Authority of Thailand Phuket Office director Nanthasiri Ronnasiri on Wednesday.
She said 70,000 rooms were open for booking by tourists, or about 70% of the total number of rooms in the province. The average hotel room occupancy rate was currently 44.46%.
Ms Nanthasiri predicted room occupancy would increase to 60% during the Songkran holiday, between April 13 and April 17, as many domestic travellers tended to book rooms at the last minute.
The average room stay during the festival was expected to be 2.49 nights per person. About 188,245 visitors, Thais and foreign tourists, were expected in Phuket during the long holiday, generating around 3.24 billion baht in revenue, she said.
Hotel reservations were mostly high on the nights of April 13 to April 15. Most rooms were booked on the first two nights of the long holiday. Some hotels saw 80% occupancy, particularly in popular places like Patong, Kamala, Surin, Kata and Karon beaches, Ms Nanthasiri said.
There were currently about 2,000 international passengers arriving in Phuket each day, plus domestic passengers. There were seven domestic inbound airlines with an average of 100 inbound flights per day.
The passenger load rate was 60-100% and the average number of arrivals was 15,000 people per day. A total of 20 international flights operated an average of 57 flights per day, with an average of 2,000 inbound passengers per day, Ms Nanthasiri said.
TAT would work with the public and private sector in Phuket on organising water festival activities on April 11-12 to boost tourism and conserve Thai tradition, she said.
