BANGKOK, 15 January 2012 (NNT) – The Tourism and Sports Ministry revealed that Thai tourism in 2011 hit a new high with roughly 730 million baht revenue despite the flood crisis.

Director General of the Tourism Department at the Tourism and Sports Ministry Supol Sriphan announced that a total of 19,098,323 tourists visited Thailand in 2011, a 19.84% increase from 2010. Consequently, the total revenue was raised by 23.92% from the previous year to stand at 734,591.46 million baht, which is a new record high for the Thai tourism business despite having suffered great impact from the flood crisis during the last quarter of 2011.

The top ten foreign tourists visiting Thailand in 2011 were Malaysians (2,470,686), Chinese (1,760,564), Japanese (1,126,221), Russians (1,014,493), Koreans (1,014,292), Indians (916,787), Laotians (887,677), Australians (854,064), British (844,221), and Americans (684,073).

Mr. Supol stated that although East Asian countries have become large markets for Thai tourism businesses, he has high hopes that the number of tourists from USA and Europe will also grow once their economic crisis is resolved since this group of tourists have a higher spending power.

The number of foreign travelers in Thailand is expected to continue growing in 2012 at around 8-10%, which is equal to 20.5-2.9 million tourists.

Reporter: Narumon Ngamsaithong – NNT