TAT Forecast Indicates Thailand Golf Tourism May Reach $US 2 Billion
Bangkok, Thailand (PRWEB) September 20, 2011
Led by development from Australia and Europe, the value of foreign golf tourism to Thailand might reach 60 billion baht or $ US 2 billion in 2012 for the very first time.
Based mostly on a Tourism Authority of Thailand forecast for a record 19 million inbound visitors to the kingdom following year, up to 600,000 foreign golf tourists – or 3 percent of the total – will make a beeline for its 5 key golf destinations: Bangkok, Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.
According to Mark Siegel, whose firm Golfasian is one of Thailand’s significant inbound golf tour operators, foreign golf tourism into Thailand is continuing to develop, whilst he says golfers devote an typical of 100,000 baht ($ US three,300) every on the ground – 3 occasions the typical of other tourists.
With Thailand’s main golf courses reporting robust early bookings and forecasting development above 2011, the estimated 57 billion baht ($ US 1.9 billion) spent in Thailand by far more than 500,000 inbound golf guests this year really should nudge 60 billion baht spent by up to 600,000 foreign golfers in 2012.
“It could be our very best season ever,” Mark Siegel says. “The political situation is calm, there have been no normal disasters [elsewhere] to deter tourism, and Thailand’s cultural capability to attract tourists remains streets ahead of other markets.”
The surge in golf tourism to Thailand will entrench the kingdom as by far Asia’s most well-known location for foreign golfers and 1 of the top 3 other golf destinations behind market leader Spain, which attracts practically a million golf tourists a year.
Even standard golf destinations such as Scotland, Ireland and England – or the United States – cannot match Thailand’s year-round golf appeal, with costs about half the expense of most western markets. Thailand has 260 golf courses – 60 fewer than Spain, 200 fewer than Scotland and 100 less than Ireland.
Two new awards are adding to Thailand’s all round tourism aura. Bangkok has been voted the world’s best city by readers of Travel & Leisure magazine in the United States, although Thailand is the world’s fourth very best country to visit and Phuket is the world’s 10th greatest island destination, according to UK magazine Cond? Nast Traveller.
Despite the fact that supplying only ten to 15 % of Thailand’s golf tourists compared with 65 % from Europe, the sturdy Australian dollar and extra flights into Thailand are bringing far more Australian golfers. Importantly for many tour operators and courses, Australia’s winter brings golfers from Down Beneath in Thailand’s reduced season amongst May possibly and September, while Europeans overwhelmingly favour the November to March high season for the duration of their winter.
Increasing prolonged-haul demand and enhancing numbers from Japan and Korea also implies members of Golf in a Kingdom: The Thai Golf Expertise, a co-operative marketing and advertising group comprising Thailand’s top golf courses and hotels, are expecting a bumper substantial season from November to March and ongoing powerful demand throughout 2012.
“There has been a dramatic improvement [in bookings],” says Prasertchai Phornprapha, managing director of Siam Country Club close to Pattaya, a two-course complex that relies purely on spend-as-you-play visitors and is expecting to host 50,000 foreign golfers in 2012, half its total expected numbers. “When there is peace in Thailand it is the destination of selection since of its culture and value for funds,” he says.
Bangkok’s exclusive Thai Country Club, named by Asian Golf Monthly last year as Thailand’s ideal course and very first runner-up in Asia, is also expecting a bumper season. Common manager T.W. Hughes says his optimism follows 1 of the very best substantial seasons ever in 2011. “We feel this year will be at least equal to final year and perhaps even much better, offered those who seasoned TCC are likely to want to repeat their experience. The course will be in the very best condition in years and we continue to make upgrades in and close to the rest of the club.”
Stacey Walton, the common manager of Banyan Golf Club at Hua Hin, 200 kilometres south of Bangkok, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand has carried out a excellent task in rebuilding Thailand’s image after protests in Bangkok in the course of the previous two years severely disrupted tourism for a number of months at a time. “We ought to see final results from that,” he says. “November to February is hunting specifically sturdy and as the golf hub of Asia, Thailand will reap the positive aspects.”
Harald Ellison, common manager of nearby Black Mountain Golf Club, says forward bookings from Scandinavia, northern Europe and the United Kingdom are encouraging. The club, owned by Swedish interests, which hasn’t missed a day’s golf since it opened in 2007, will bring a new par-3 course into play by the end of the year to accompany its core 18-hole layout. The new island-dotted mini-course with water on each and every hole and heavy bunkering will be a check for golfers of all ranges and is expected to be played by a huge number of Black Mountain’s visitors.
Meanwhile, the Thai Government has substantial hopes for continued powerful tourism development over the following four years. Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism and Sports Minister, Chumpol Silpa-archa, announced a target of at least 30 million foreign inbound tourists by 2015, who he stated were anticipated to create national revenues of one.four trillion baht or $ US466 billion at current exchange rates.
If achieved, the target would practically double inbound arrivals in just five years. And if inbound golf market’s share and expenditure continue to be at existing levels, golf tourism will contribute 150 billion baht ($ US four.5 billion) to the Thai economic system four years from now.
For a lot more data on Golf in a Kingdom -The Thailand Golf Knowledge or to make golf travel plans in Thailand, visit http://www.golfinakingdom.com or e mail information@golfinakingdom.com
For a lot more information, get in touch with:
Paul Myers, Asian Travel Media, Bangkok
E-mail: paul(at)asiantravelmedia(dot)com
Tel: +66 () 84 125 1894
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