Chiangmai: Thailand's northern resort province of Chiang Mai is one of the Kingdom's most popular tourist destinations during the winter months, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has projected that over Bt600 million (US$ 15 million) of cash will be spend during the upcoming New Year festival.

Chalermsak Suranant, Director of the TAT Northern Office, Region I in Thailand, told reporters that he expected a great number of New Year revelers who love the coolness of the winter and would travel to Chiang Mai for the New Year celebrations..

The predicted Bt600 million of spending during the New Year holidays in Chiang Mai, will benefit the local people and businesses. Hotels and tour companies, as well as tourism-related businesses were believed to mostly benefit from the coming New Year festival.

Chalermsak Suranant estimated that the number of tourists visiting Chiang Mai during the month of December 2003 and January 2004 would increase by about 25% from the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department warned in a statement released to the Thai media and the general public, that temperatures in Thailand's Northern regions would lower by 2-4 degrees Celsius over the next few days due to the influence of the high pressure zone from China. People living in, or wanting to travel to Chiangmai, should, therefore prepare themselves for much cooler weather.