Thailand 's business statistics from last year make pretty

reading. Of the 11.7 million tourists who visited the country, almost 1.2 million came for business, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) statistics. That was an 83 per cent increase year-on-year.

Of the 1.2 million, 159,000 came for conventions – a massive 82.5 per cent on-year rise. The Lions International conference and several other large-size conventions contributed to

the increase.

Almost 38,000 visitors came for official business – a 14 per cent drop from the previous year. The decrease was expected, given that Thailand hosted the APEC Summit in 2003.

The average length of stay for all visitors was eight days, indicating a number of business visitors remained in the country for post-event tours.