Average occupancy rate only 59.21% in 2011

Thailand's average hotel occupancy rate was at 59.21 per cent last year, according to the figures accumulated by the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

Surapong Techaruvichit, vice president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), admitted that the rate was not in line with the 19 per cent increase in the number of visitor arrivals. He attributed that to the emergence of non-hotel accommodations like serviced apartments.

Hotels in the North suffered the most with occupancy of only 45 per cent, while hotels in the South (western coast, covering Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga) enjoyed the highest occupancy at 66.47 per cent. Occupancy rates for hotels in Bangkok and Central region with 250 rooms or more were 60.69 per cent; Northeast 63.01 per cent; South (eastern coast, including Samui) 50.24 per cent; East 61.76 per cent; and West 55.06 per cent.

According to Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) President Sisdivachr Cheewarattanporn, from 19.1 million visitor arrivals, Thai tour companies catered services to 2.8 million, generating about Bt88 billion in income. China was the biggest market for tour operators, with a number of 580,000 visitors which represented a 38.24 per cent increase from the previous year.

Trailing behind were Russia, 450,000, up 71.25 per cent; India, 231,000, down 1.45 per cent; Korea, 190,000, up 37.29 per cent; and Japan, 150,000, up 6.52 per cent.

Visitor arrivals from Vietnam showed the highest increase, 140.41 per cent, to 115,000; and Indonesia, up 92.62 per cent to 73,043.

In contrast, visitor arrivals from Germany dropped 13.48 per cent on year to 66,171.