PHUKET: Proof that Phuket is becoming more and more a genuine international island comes with the latest statistics for April from Phuket International Airport.
International passengers rose by 31 percent year-on-year to 507,235 while domestic passengers increased by just 8.09 percent to 414,936.
In April 2012, the numbers were within a couple of thousand of each other - 387,000 international passengers to almost 384,000 domestic passengers.
The tally of arrivals and departures for April fell just shy of one million at 922,171.
But add on the one-million-plus results for January, February and March, and the total for the first four months is 4,066,471.
While May usually marks a dip from high season to low season, the downward curve is likely to be shallow this year compared to past years.
The million-plus average for 2013's first four months indicates the tally for the whole year is likely to be around 10.5 million.
Rival holiday island Bali is expecting three million international visitors this year and Phuket is on course to entertain about 2.5 million.
That number stacks up against 320,000 registered Phuket citizens and perhaps 400,000 from other provinces.
The 100,000 to 200,000 legal and illegal Burmese tip the numbers balance even further towards ''international.''
The acceleration in the internationalisation of Phuket should mean that the local Phuket authorities pay greater attention to issues related to tourism.
There is no lack of concern about safety and security. Yet if tourists had more say, the environment would be better protected and taxi and tuk-tuk fares would be a lot lower.
International passengers rose by 31 percent year-on-year to 507,235 while domestic passengers increased by just 8.09 percent to 414,936.
In April 2012, the numbers were within a couple of thousand of each other - 387,000 international passengers to almost 384,000 domestic passengers.
The tally of arrivals and departures for April fell just shy of one million at 922,171.
But add on the one-million-plus results for January, February and March, and the total for the first four months is 4,066,471.
While May usually marks a dip from high season to low season, the downward curve is likely to be shallow this year compared to past years.
The million-plus average for 2013's first four months indicates the tally for the whole year is likely to be around 10.5 million.
Rival holiday island Bali is expecting three million international visitors this year and Phuket is on course to entertain about 2.5 million.
That number stacks up against 320,000 registered Phuket citizens and perhaps 400,000 from other provinces.
The 100,000 to 200,000 legal and illegal Burmese tip the numbers balance even further towards ''international.''
The acceleration in the internationalisation of Phuket should mean that the local Phuket authorities pay greater attention to issues related to tourism.
There is no lack of concern about safety and security. Yet if tourists had more say, the environment would be better protected and taxi and tuk-tuk fares would be a lot lower.
Not really understand why it is written that Phuket is on course to entertain 3,5 million international visitors if there are expected to come 10,5 million visitors, and the monthly no of international arrivals is 507,235 passengers ? And the total of 10,5 million is also a bit dodgy if the total no of arrivals and departures is below 1 million, that would indicate more in the range of maybe say 5-6 million tourists or people visiting Phuket for one reason or another .
Posted by Sailor on May 17, 2013 16:07
Editor Comment:
You are misreading the figures. The totals are for arrivals AND departures, domestic AND international. So a quick method is to divide by two for arrivals, then divide by two again for international arrivals. International arrivals are up but the end result is about 2.5 million overseas visitors expected in 2013. Some inventive high figures are offered. They're not correct.