Phuket tourism figures leap

Lorna Strickland

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Phuket International Airport (PIA) welcomed 27% more passengers in the first eight months of the year, compared with the same period last year

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) predicted that the number of passengers arriving in Phuket would increase by 10% this year compared with 2003. TAT deputy director Kakai Napasorn told local newspapers that Phuket had become more popular as a short-haul destination for Asian travellers, partly because of terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world.
 
Visitor numbers could be boosted still further if an Australian Airlines Boeing 767 charter flight between Sydney and Phuket, which is being tested this month, becomes a regular feature.
 
Government figures (which are counted by budget year ? October 1 to September 30, rather than TAT figures which are counted by calendar year) show that between October 1 last year and August 31 this year, 4.17m passengers passed through Phuket International Airport, a rise of 30% year-on-year.
 
The number of flights to and from Phuket during the same period also increased by 22% to 27,392.