Targeted Thai tourism-related revenues maintained at Bt1.8t in 2014

BANGKOK, February 13 (TNA) - Thailand, through the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, has maintained targeted tourism-related revenues at 1.8 trillion baht in 2014. Caretaker Tourism and Sports Minister Somsak Phurisrisak said on Wednesday that the official target of tourism-related revenues were maintained because tourism in provincing areas has continued growing satisfactorily, despite persistent political protests in Bangkok. Somsak assessed that visitors from the Middle East who also seek medical services and Chinese travelers should considerably return to Thailand in the second half of this year. Meanwhile, the caretaker tourism and sports minister and Thawatchai Arunyik, Governor of the state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), told a press conference that prolonged domestic political demonstrations in Bangkok have caused a plung in the number of international tourist arrivals in Thailand, especially among those from Asian nations, like China and Japan, whose number has fallen by 200,000-300,000, while domestic tourism-related revenues have dropped by 16 billion baht. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reported that 48 economies have remained warning their people to avoid visiting Thailand, with Oman and Hong Kong maintaining their warnings at the serious Level 4, under which their citizens are advised to take special precautions. The caretaker tourism and sports minister revealed that representatives of about 30 countries will be invited to witness tourism atmosphere in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket to boost international confidence in the Thai tourism and they are scheduled to arrive in Thailand on February 19. Piyaman Tejapaibul, President of the Tourism Council of Thailand, projected that about 29.9 million international tourists should visit Thailand this year and their arrivals should generate tourism-related national income of 1.35 trillion baht although international tourist arrivals in the first half of this year should drop by 1.8 million from earlier expected.(TNA)