The re-election of Thailand's incumbent prime minister, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, has given business leaders renewed hope the current economic boom will continue apace.

General managers of five-star hotels in Bangkok are particularly happy with the result, believing another four years of business-oriented governance will be good for direct inward investment, and room occupancy.

Although figures for the full 12 months of last year have yet to be released, figures for January to October are up on the same period of 2003 and are expected to be 10 per cent up year-on-year.

The statistics indicate average expenditure took a massive 36 per cent dive in 2003. However, analysts believe this was more likely to be an adjustment in calculating techniques than a real drop. Average length of stay has continued to show improvement and is expected to improve by two or three points in 2004 before flattening off in 2005.

Business travel arrivals

	2001	2002	2003	2004 (Jan-Oct)
No. of arrivals	878,571	824,479	853,494	806,415
Expenditure (baht/day)	5,618	5,853	4,271	-
Length of stay (days)	7.93	7.98	8.19	-

Source: Tourism Authority of Thailand