BANGKOK, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Tourists from the Chinese mainland marked the largest number of foreign visitors to Thailand last month, increasing 15.49 percent, announced Tourism and Sports Ministry undersecretary Pongpanu Svetarundra on Tuesday.
Last month, a total of 2,555,689 foreigners visited Thailand, 1,841,506 of whom coming from East Asia, followed by those from Europe, South Asia, America, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa respectively, the ministry's undersecretary said in Tuesday's statement.
That registered a 5.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
The foreign visitors spent a combined 133.49 billion baht (about 392.61 million U.S. dollars) during their stays in Thailand last month, accounting for a 12 percent rise from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, more than 26 million foreigners have visited Thailand between January and September this year, Pongpanu said.
There were a total of 26,100,782 visitors to Thailand during this year's first nine months, bringing in some 1.33 trillion baht (about 39.11 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism-related revenue, accounting for 5.4 percent and 7.9 percent increases from the same period last year respectively, he said.
A single purchase
