THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has told a group of visiting UK travel and tourism professionals that his government “is committed to ensuring Thailand remains a peaceful, stable and hospitable country to visit”.

The comments were made at the opening of the 23rd Guardian Observer Travel Awards organized by the Guardian News and Media group in Bangkok last week.

Mr. Abhisit told the gathering that in ensuring Thailand remains a world class tourist-friendly destination, the government has adopted several measures to make it more convenient for tourists to travel to Thailand. These included visa fee waivers, airport landing fee waivers, hotel promotions and a tourist insurance scheme.

Highlighting the affect the global financial crunch, pandemic A (H1N1), and domestic political issues have had on the Thai tourism industry, Mr. Abhisit said that from January to September 2009, Thailand welcomed almost seven million international tourists.

While conceding that this was significantly less than for the same period last year, the PM said it was in line with international trends.

“Tourism is fast picking up, and the prospects look very good for us to reach the targeted 14 million tourists for the entire year.”

Mr. Abhisit said so far this year there had been over 435,000 visitors from the UK, with the target being for at least 700,000 for the entire year.

He said that he was confident that with Thailand’s peak travel season beginning next month and the launch of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s “Amazing Thailand Amazing Value” campaign Thailand can increase the number of visitors in 2010.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for October 22, 2009

Ed: In 2008 tourism accounted for more than six percent of Thailand’s GDP or Bt521.7 billion (about $US14.78 billion at 2008 rates) with 14.57 million inbound foreign tourists. At the start of the year Thailand had forecast 15.7 million tourist arrivals for 2009.