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Tourists visiting Thailand drop 6.6 pct in 2014

Xinhua, January 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

About 24.7 million tourists visited Thailand throughout 2014, down 6.6 percent from a year earlier, a tourism official said Thursday.

The drop resulted from the country's political chaos in the first half of 2014 as well as international economic factors like Russian ruble depreciation, Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.

A decline in visitors led to a 5.8-percent reduction in revenue, Kobkarn said.

In November alone, devaluation of the Russian ruble caused a 21- percent decline in Russian tourists, figures from the Tourist Authority of Thailand showed.

Second only to China, Russia is a major source of tourists for Thailand. The drop in Russian visitors has hit resorts towns such as Pattaya and Phuket. Endi