BANGKOK, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 23.5 million foreigners visited Thailand during this year's first eight months, said a senior Thai government official on Tuesday.
The 23.5 million foreign tourists to Thailand, mostly from China, accounted for a 5.36 percent increase from the same period last year and brought some 1.2 trillion baht (about 35.3 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism-related incomes to the country, according to Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
Those earnings represented a 7.47 percent increase from the corresponding period last year, he said.
According to a report from the ministry, Chinese tourists, the biggest contributor to Thai tourism, accounted for some 30 percent of total foreign tourists and contributed some 30 percent of total earnings from foreign tourists.
