Over Bt10bn cash circulations expected during 2012 Chinese New Year

BANGKOK, January 12 (TNA) - The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has estimated that over one billion baht will be changed hands during the forthcoming Chinese New Year festival in 10 main celebration areas nationwide. According to the TAT, the 10 main celebration areas in Thailand for the 2012 Chinese New Year include Bangkok's Yaowaraj or Chinatown, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan Provinces in the North, Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the Northeast, Suphan Buri, Ratchaburi and Ayutthaya Provinces in the central region, Chon Buri Province in the East and Songkhla and Phuket Provinces in the South. TAT Governor Surapol Sawetseranee and a charge d'affaires at the Chinese Embassy to Thailand Zhang Yiming, as well as governors or representatives of the 10 targeted areas jointly held a press conference in Bangkok on Wednesday to announce functions and activities to be simultaneously organised in the 10 areas, from January 21-30, to welcome the Year of Dragon. Surapol said that the various, but different, functions and activities to be held in the 10 areas include lion dances, demonstrations of traditional Chinese ways of life, Chinese food fairs, as well as musical fountain and Chinese orchestra shows. The TAT governor revealed that a special Chinese cultural performance, sponsored by the Chinese Culture Ministry and set to be on show only in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Thailand, will be a highlight of the 2012 Chinese New Year activities in the 10 targeted areas, as part of Thailand's grand celebrations of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 85th birthday on December 5, 2012 and joint Bangkok-Beijing celebrations on the two countries' 37th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. The TAT governor projected that over 300,000 foreign tourists with Chinese descendant, including those from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, will likely visit Thailand during the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, generating some four billion baht cash circulations in the Thai economy, apart from another 7 billion baht circulations generated by Thai nationals of Chinese origin. (TNA)