Last month, Thailand was named ‘Best Destination – Asia Pacific’ at the annual Travel Weekly Asia Readers’ Choice Awards. This latest accolade adds to a growing portfolio of awards for the kingdom, where sustained growth in tourist arrivals continues to illustrate the nation’s popularity on the world stage.
Thailand saw a total of 35.38 million international tourist arrivals in 2017, representing an increase of nearly 9% on the previous year. From January – September this year, the number of international arrivals to Thailand totalled 28.5 million, also up by 8.7% when compared to the same period last year. Revenue generated by Thailand’s booming tourism industry in this period topped 1.5 trillion Baht, up by 11% compared to the previous year.
“Thailand’s worldwide popularity both with tourists and travel industry professionals who sell the destination continues to grow,†said Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). “This is evidenced in each international award Thailand earns, and the latest Readers’ Choice Award from Travel Weekly Asia is certainly no exception. It goes without saying that each and every one of these accolades is a true honour for Thailand,†he continued.
The fourth iteration of Travel Weekly Asia’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards were held during a gala event in Singapore on 15th October 2018. A total of 56 awards were presented across ten categories including Destination, Airline, Hotel, Resort, Travel Agent and Tourism Experience. The Awards celebrate organisations and suppliers whose outstanding performance has distinguished them from the competition and helped to set new industry standards. Panorama Destination was named ‘Best Travel Agency – Southeast Asia (Inbound).’
The Travel Weekly Asia award is added to Thailand’s haul of victories in 2018. Among numerous other gongs, the nation was also voted ‘Destination of the Year’ at the 29th Annual TTG Travel Awards, whilst the capital – Bangkok – was named ‘Number One City in the World’ for the third year running in Mastercard’s 2018 Global Destination Cities Index.
