According to the annual Tourism Statistics 2023 report by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS), 8,376,464 of the visitors to Phuket last year were foreigners, marking a +152.29% increase on 2022, generating B365.826bn (+107.06%) in tourism revenues.
The number of Thais visiting Phuket, totalling 2,924,034, increased by only +26.68% compared with 2022, but still generating B2.219bn for the local economy.
Occupancy rate at hotels and other registered guest accommodations across the island rose by 30.17%, the MoTS report noted.
However, how many foreign tourists visited Phuket in 2023 according to nationality remains unconfirmed by officials, who have stopped issuing reports confirming how many foreigners arrive each month by port of entry and nationality.
MoTS has stopped reporting breakdown by port of entry, which included categories by nationality, and Phuket Immigration late last year stopped issuing its monthly reports confirming tourist arrivals totals by nationality.
Reports by Phuket Immigration from March through October last year accounted for only 412,728 Chinese tourists arriving directly in Phuket, despite recording 74,766 arrivals in July alone.
Likewise, reports by Phuket Immigration from March through October last year accounted for only 321,491 direct Russian arrivals to Phuket, despite hitting a high of 94,308 in March alone.
It is commonly understood that many tourists arrive in Bangkok then travel to Phuket, yet even when Phuket Immigration last year was reporting each month how many foreigners were registered as staying on the island, including at hotels and other guest accommodations, the reports never gave a breakdown by nationality.
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Regardless, MoTS confirmed an exact total of 28,150,016 tourists visiting Thailand last year, as already announced.
Of those, 3,521,095 were from China, 1,628,542 were from India and 1,482,611 were from Russia, while Malaysia remained the clear leader with 4,626,422 visitors entering Thailand throughout the year.
Arrivals from the United States totalled 930,206, while 817,220 British nationals entered the country as did 687,745 tourists from Australia.
From the MIddle East, 178,113 tourists last year came from Saudi Arabia, 138,934 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 217,084 from Israel.
From Central/Eastern Europe, in addition to 1,482,611 arrivals from the Russian Federation, there were 36,426 from Ukraine, 34,151 from Uzbekistan and 172,489 from Kazakhstan.
From Europe, there were 545,003 tourist arrivals from France, 729,163 from Germany and 229,539 from the Netherlands.
Of the 9,822,280 tourist arrivals from throughout Southeast Asia, 1,027,424 were from Singapore, 1,033,688 from Vietnam, 583,708 from Cambodia, 762,118 from Indonesia, 919,401 from Laos, 461,251 from the Philippines and 394,134 from Myanmar.
The MoTS has set a target of B3.5 trillion in revenue and 40 million foreign arrivals this year. Tourism and Sports Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol said to reach the revenue goal, it would require B2.3trn from 40 million foreign tourists and B1.2trn from 200-220mn domestic trips.