Thailand's recent floods not affect tourism:poll

BANGKOK, December 27 (TNA) - A recent poll found that the majority of international tourists viewed Thailand’s recent flooding crisis would not affect the domestic tourism and more than half of the respondents planned to celebrate the forthcoming New Year festival in Thailand. According to the Bangkok poll, conducted by Bangkok University's Research Centre, 87.6 per cent of the international tourists surveyed said that Thailand's recent flooding had not affected or had only slightly affected their decisions on visiting the Kingdom. The survey also found that 56.9 per cent of the respondents viewed the Thai cuisine the most attraction drawing them to Thailand, followed by 54 per cent of them who were charmed by Thai historic and archaeological sites and 41.7 per cent of them by friendly smiles and hospitalities of Thai people. Nearly one-thirds, or 29.6 per cent, of the respondents said that Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace in Bangkok were first things coming to their minds when they thought of Thailand, followed by 13.7 per cent of them who thought of other Thai temples first and 10.5 per cent of them first thought of shopping. However, Bangkok traffic was what 35.2 per cent of the surveyed international tourists were concerned most over Bangkok, followed by too high product and taxi prices demanded by traders and drivers. The Bangkok poll, meanwhile, found that the surveyed international tourists rated the Thai capital 7.65 out of 10 on average in terms of their satisfactions, up from 7.52 in April this year. For 58.6 per cent of the respondents who planned to celebrate the upcoming New Year festival in Thailand, the majority of them would like to travel to Samui Island in the Thai South, followed by Chiang Mai in the North, Khao San Road in Bangkok, with 80.2 per cent of them expressing confidence in government security measures and 83.6 per cents saying that they would come back to Bangkok and 92.2 per cent would recommend Thailand to others. (TNA)