Prospect of Thai tourism remains bright

BANGKOK, January 30 (TNA) - Thailand's tourism is expected to maintain its positive trend in the first quarter of this year, thanks to continual inflows of international visitors, especially those from China and Russia. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Govenor Yuthasak Supasorn, along with President of the Tourism Council of Thailand Itthirith Kinglek and tourism entrepreneurs, told a press conference, held in Bangkok on Monday, of the positive prospect of the domestic tourism during the January-March 2017. The TAT governor projected that Thailand should earn up to 733 billion baht from tourism-related revenues in the first quarter of this year, an 8 per cent year-on-year increase, 490 billion baht of which should be earned from foreign tourists and the rest from Thai tourists. According to the TAT governor, major markets for the Thai tourism include China, Russia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, while markets with the growing number of tourist arrivals in Thailand include Brazil, Russia, Argentina, Cambodia and Saudi Arabia, thanks to the recovering global economy and growing aviation services of international airlines and charter flights during this year's Chinese New Year Festival and marketing campaigns launched by TAT, while policies of new US President Donald Trump have not yet affected Thailand. For the domestic tourism, the TAT governor forecast it should earn the country more by a 12 per cent increase, boosted by the recovering Thai economy. Meanwhile, TAT reported that the recent Thai Tourism Festival 2017 has earned the Kingdom over 383 million baht of tourism-related revenues, drawing up to 45,842 foreign tourists to the country, a 96 per cent surge, as the foreign tourists expressed their interest in travelling to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi, Loei, Surat Thani, Chiang Rai, Nakhon Phanom, Satun, Mae Hong Song and Nan Provinces. TAT, thus, strongly expected that Thailand should earn up to 2.77 trillion baht tourism-related revenues in 2017 as targeted. (TNA)