Pattaya ranked 8th
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was delighted with the naming of Bangkok as the Number One tourist destination in Asia-Pacific and urged the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to push forward Bangkok’s street food vending.
Pattaya was ranked the 8th best tourist destination in the same survey.
He expressed his delight as the MasterCard Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2017 survey ranked Bangkok as the top tourist destination in Asia-Pacific with 19.3 million visitors last year, from among a total of 339.2 million tourists traveling to 171 destinations in the region.
Bangkok is also the city where most tourists stay overnight at 87.6 million people, and the second most city where tourists spend the most of money at 12.7 billion US dollars, behind Singapore at 15.4 billion US dollars.
The premier said Bangkok has recently received good rankings in many surveys, such as being named the best city for street foods and fresh markets, thus Thai people should be proud and help conserve these good aspects.
He said the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were instructed to push forward policies which will concretely develop Bangkok as a world-class street food city, beginning with the operations at Yaowarat and Khaosan Road starting later this month.
The top 10 tourism destinations in Asia-Pacific from MasterCard Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2017 are Bangkok, Singapore; Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, Hong Kong, Pattaya, Osaka, and Taipei.
