The number of Thai tourists to Hong Kong is expected to grow by 24 percent this year and they will spend up to 8.6 billion baht (US$215 million) on the business island, according to a report of the KASIKORN Research Centre (KRC) Monday.

KRC, the Bangkok-based research house said that Hong Kong has been a renowned haven for foreign tourists and shoppers for a longtime, with the potential growing over the past five years.

In 2004, the KRC said, Thai tourists spent up to 6.84 billion baht (US$171 million) on the business island.

The leading think tank projected that the number of Thai tourist arrivals in Hong Kong would grow 24 percent on top of last year, or nearly 300,000 by the end of this year, thanks to a new major tourist attraction there--Hong Kong Disneyland, which was officially opened recently.

In the second half of this year alone, the KRC estimated that the number of Thai tourists to Hong Kong could reach 158,000, a 20 percent increase from the same period of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2005)