Bangkok and Phuket are top travel destinations for Chinese nationals during their National Day holiday week, according to a recent survey conducted by the China National Tourism Administration Research Institute and Ctrip.com.

(TRAVPR.COM) THAILAND - February 10th, 2012 - Bangkok and Phuket are top travel destinations for Chinese nationals during their National Day holiday week, according to a recent survey conducted by the China National Tourism Administration Research Institute and Ctrip.com. Other popular destinations for the Chinese nationals include Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei and the Maldives, report commercial real estate company, Castlewood Group.

From January to July 2011, around 980,000 Chinese tourists had travelled to Thailand. The Tourism of Authority of Thailand (TAT) expected to receive 1.4 million Chinese tourists by the end of 2011. Phuket has seen a significant increase in Chinese arrivals last year. In the first half of 2011, the number of Chinese tourists to Phuket had jumped by 103%.

Why are Chinese Tourists Flocking to Thailand?

The sudden increase in the number of Chinese tourists to Phuket and Bangkok has been partly attributed to the opening up of various international carriers to Phuket thereby enabling the tourists to catch direct flights from China to Phuket, which are an addition to the existing twice a week flights operating between Guangzhou of southern China and Phuket. This is expected to bring in approximately 16,000 Chinese Tourists into Phuket.

In addition, China’s National Flag carrier ‘China Southern Airlines’ is expected to introduce two more international flights quite shortly which would further boost the tourism inflow, especially into Bangkok.

“In recent years, outbound travel from China has increased rapidly. Bangkok and Phuket have become popular choices for short getaways,” commented Chris Comer, CEO of Castlewood Group, a commercial real estate developer based in Singapore. “With rising affluence, more Chinese tourists are demanding higher quality services and they prefer to stay in four or five-star hotels.”

The 8over8 luxury hotel, a project by Castlewood Group, will be situated in Phuket, near the beautiful Bang Tao Beach and Laguna Resort. It will be scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2013.

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