Retail News CRM

Tag: Foreign Tourists

  • Australia leads top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali

    Australia leads top ten sources of tourist arrivals in Bali

    Australia led the ten top sources of tourist arrivals in the resort island of Bali in the January-September 2016 period, an official said.

    “The number of Australian tourists visiting Bali in the first nine months of this year reached 850,326, up 16.85 percent from 727,678 in the same period last year,” chief of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Office in Bali, Adi Nugroho said here on Sunday.

    Most of the Australian tourists traveled to Bali by direct flights. Only 18,554 of them went to the island by cruise liner.

    More and more Australians visited Bali as they regarded it as their “second home”, he said.

    Australia contributed 23.36 percent of the overall tourist arrivals in Bali at 3.63 million over the period, up 21.69 percent compared to the same period last year when the figure was recorded at 2.99 million.

    Adi Nugroho said nine of the ten top sources of tourist arrivals in bali saw a significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals in Bali. Only the number of Malaysian tourists fell 6.64 percent to 138,203 from 138,203.

    Meanwhile, China occupied the second place with 35.84 percent of the total budget fund.

  • ‘Maintenance Fee’ for All Foreign Tourists Proposed by Tourism Governor

    ‘Maintenance Fee’ for All Foreign Tourists Proposed by Tourism Governor

    A plan to charge foreign tourists 360 baht each time they enter the kingdom as a fee to maintain and improve tourist attractions has been proposed by the head of the tourism authority.

    Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, suggested in an interview that money collected from the fees could be reinvested in the tourism throughout the kingdom, but almost as soon as the idea was suggested, it was played down by his own organization.

    In an interview with Voice TV, Yuthasak said foreign tourists would be charged USD$10 (360 baht) each time they enter Thailand, whether by air, land or sea. Among its uses, he said, would be enhancing security measures.

    “It will be collected under the name of a tourist attraction administration fee,” Yuthasak said. “We will use the money to maintain and improve security systems of tourist attractions across the country, in order to support the tourism sector, which has been growing steadily.” 

    He also did the math for its potential windfall. 

    “If there are 30 million tourists, Thailand will earn 10.8 billion baht per year from this fee, and it will help each province earn around 142 million baht to improve its tourism,” he said.

    The plan’s prospects were unclear, however. Hours after the Voice TV published the interview, an official at the tourism authority said the idea was only Yuthasak’s personal idea.

    “This is not an official policy. It still needs additional study,” said authority spokeswoman Sunantha Montri. “It’s only an idea.”

    She said Yuthasak is attending a summit in the Philippines and not available for comment.

    In the Voice TV article, Yuthasak dismissed any concern the fee would adversely affect tourism, saying many countries already had similar policies.

    “I believe it won’t affect tourism that much, because at the present time many countries already collect this fee in subtle ways,” he said without elaborating.