Wanleaks, the new branch of Phuketwan that specialises in disclosure, can reveal exclusively that tourist numbers visiting Phuket have risen dramatically this year with Indonesia, China and Russia the hottest tourist nations among a large group of hot nations, writes PhuketWan.
Figures sighted by the WanLeak team show that arrivals from Indonesia in the nine month between January and September this year are up a remarkable 314 percent, with numbers from China up 240 percent and from Russia up 157 percent.
The total of well over a million from the top 15 nations makes for a remarkable increase of 56 percent year-on-year in international passengers who arrived on Phuket before October 1, writes PhuketWan.
The country delivering most tourists to Phuket in that period was Australia, with 160,000 coming by air and 11,000 by sea, a 49 percent increase.
Closing the gap rapidly was China, with 127,000 arrivals on flights and more than 17,000 by sea accounting for that astronomical 240 percent increase.
Coming off a small base and with an increasing number of middle class travellers, Indonesia’s rapid rise to a total of almost 54,000 visitors was also extremely impressive.
But the immediate attention of resort marketing departments is probably keenly focused for the time being on Russia and its meteoric rise to 83,000 plus travellers, of whom just a few hundred came by sea.
Guesswork is often employed about arrivals by air on Phuket. According to WanLeak, almost one million overseas passport holders from the top 15 countries took flights to Phuket in the nine months to September, with close to an additional 110,000 coming by sea.
Korea is Phuket’s third most valuable source of tourists, WanLeaks can reveal, with more than 130,000 arrivals in the first nine months of 2010.
As with Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia show the increasing importance of regional neighbors, with more than 80,000 Singaporeans (up 47 percent) narrowly shading the 73,000 Malaysians (up 32 percent).
While more Swedes can be anticipated in the high season, Phuket no longer appears to be such a firm favorite in that cold climate. Sweden is the only country among the top 15 with a minus against its name, with the number of Phuket visitors from Sweden sliding by eight percent to 71,000.
Britain (56,000 plus 18 percent) Indonesia and Germany (39,000 up 12 percent) round out the top 10.
India seems on the verge of a breakthrough as a bigger player (36,000 up 62 percent) with familiar favorites Finland, Hong Kong, Japan and France rounding out the top 15.
