BANGKOK – The spokesman of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has announced that Thailand has ranked as the top destination of all searches made online from France’s most popular traveling website in 2016.
PMO spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Thailand was ranked at the top of all long-haul destination searches made online, according to the online statistics of France’s most popular website on traveling, Le Routard (www.routard.com), with a monthly user traffic of 2.5 million.
The website compiled user searches during January to November 2016 and concluded that Thailand was the top pick, while the United States came in the second place, followed by Cuba, Bali, Vietnam and Canada. The website described that users were highly confident in Thailand’s capability as a long-haul travel destination, and added that Thailand has held the top tier position for many consecutive years.
He said that the Prime Minister was pleased with the news report which is consistent with the recent sixth annual Mastercard Global Destinations Cities Index that places Thailand as the top destination for tourists in 2016 among 132 countries worldwide.
The number of tourists has grown steadily and the spending per capita has increased significantly. This year, Thailand’s tourism generated 2.4 trillion baht in revenue, exceeding the original target of 2.3 trillion baht, while the total number of tourists were recorded at 30.2 million thanks to the crackdown on illegal tours and other government measures aimed at promoting tourism, said the PMO spokesman.
