Pattaya 10th Most Popular Tourist Destination in Asia

[Evil Penevil]

Pattaya has been named the 10th most popular destination among the 167 Asian destinations (cities, towns, resorts) in the MasterCard Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2016, This isn't new, the release goes back to June, but it didn't get much coverage at the time.

Pattaya is the fifth-most-popular destination inAsia for tourists from China. Thailand has three of the top five spots for Chinese tourists:

Again according to MasterCard, China will be the top contributor of tourists to Pattaya in 2016 with 28.8% of the total. Russia will be in second place with 11.6% and South Korea third with 6.6%.

With 7.3 million international arrivals; 25.2 million overnight stays; and USD3.3 billion in expenditures in 2016, Pattaya isn't a ghost town. Keep in mind that Pattaya is preferred to 157 other destinations across Asia.

Overall tourism to Pattaya isn't declining, but the demographics are changing. Any fall-off in farang "sex tourists" is mitigated by increases in Chinese and other Asian tourists.

Separately, Bangkok has been named the top tourist destination in the world in the MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index 2016. The index covers 132 major cities around the world. The Index doesn't include Pattaya nor many other popular tourist destinations like Las Vegas, Orlando, Honolulu, St. Tropez and many others.

Whatever problems bars are having, tourism to Thailand in general and Pattaya in particular are doing fine.

Evil