Tourism arrivals to Thailand jumped 66 percent in May, compared with a year ago when Bangkok was rocked by anti-government protests.
Thailand’s gain in tourists in May was the steepest in South-East Asia, which was the fastest-growing region in Asia-Pacific that month.
Southeast Asia recorded a 16 percent increase in arrivals in May. Other notable increases were recorded by Vietnam (+37%), Myanmar (+33%), Cambodia (+12%) and Singapore (+11%).
In May, more than 1.3 million foreign tourists visited Thailand compared with 826,000 a year ago.
New Zealand registered a marginal 0.4% decline in May. Arrivals to Australia were up for the month, albeit at a modest three percent. 


Kris Lim, director of the Strategic Intelligence Centre, PATA, said, “Intra-regional travel remains the key. The dynamic China and India outbound markets continue to expand at a rapid pace with many Indian and Chinese travellers visiting Southeast Asia.â€â€¨â€¨
Japan’s inbound market appears to have reached the bottom of the trough and some positive movements are now being seen.
The better news is on Japan’s outbound performance where the drop eased to around –2.9 percent year-on-year for the month of June 2011. 

