BANGKOK, April 10 – Almost 70 per cent of foreign tourists intend to celebrate the Thai New Year Songkran festival, and the northern province of Chiang Mai is the destination of most of them, according to a recent opinion poll by Bangkok University Research Center (Bangkok Poll).
The survey on “Foreign Tourists and Thailand’s Songkran Festival 2013”, conducted April 2-4, found 27 per cent of the respondents are attracted by Thailand’s historic sites, followed by some 24 per cent drawn to natural attractions and 14.5 per cent focusing on culture and folk arts.
Regarding their plans to celebrate Songkran, 70 per cent of those surveyed said they will join the festival and that 15 per cent want to celebrate in the northern province of Chiang Mai, followed by 10 per cent and 8 per cent selecting the southern island of Phuket and Khao San Road, Bangkok’s backpacker haven, respectively.
One-third of foreign tourists or 32 per cent are concerned about personal safety and possible losses of property, followed by nearly one-third — 29 per cent – are not happy with the prospect of traffic, while 15 per cent said splashing the water too roughly is not attractive or enjoyable..
Regarding satisfaction in travelling to Thailand overall, on a scale of one to 10, they responded with 7.65 points on average, 0.23 higher than the satisfaction score in the last survey, done from March 30-April1, 2012.
What they like most was Thai culture, with a score of 8.6 while Thailand’s air quality got the lowest score with 5.62.
Touching on their confidence in security, 96 per cent of the respondents felt confident from a quite high to a very high level.
