Thailand: Number of tourists jumps 7.6 percent to 10.49 million

The number of foreign tourists during the first six months has increased by 7.6% to 10.49 million compared to the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

January had the highest record with 1.9 million visitors while March had the highest growth with 11.99%.

More than half of the visitors (5.4 million) were from East Asia, led by the Chinese, while Europeans were the second-largest group with 2.9 million visitors. Russians were the top visitors from Europe.

The third-largest group (632,976) was from South Asia, of which around 80% were Indians.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports expects that the numbers of visitors will reach its target of 20.5 million visitors by the end of this year.

Meanwhile the Thailand Film Office also reported increased revenue from foreign film production in Thailand during the first six months.

It found that revenue jumped 26.47% to 1.5 billion baht from 1.2 billion baht during the same period last year.

This came from a total of 335 films, more than half of which were advertising. Other popular film categories were documentary (56 films), TV series (49), feature films (28) and music videos (18).

Japan was the leading country which used Thailand as a film location. During the first six months, 72 Japanese programmes were shot here, followed by India (64), European countries (53), South Korea and Hong Kong, both with 21 films, and the United States.

The Thailand Film Office said more foreign films will be shot here during the second half of the year, with an expected total of 600 films for 2012. Among those still to be shot this year are several food-orientated TV series, documentaries, a major Hollywood studio feature film and at least one independent film on martial arts.