THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: Thailand’s tourism promotion board, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), has told a gathering of industry representatives in Singapore that it expects 13.25 million people will visit the kingdom this year.

The optimistic comments were made by the chairman of TAT’s Board of Directors, Weerasak Kowsurat, on a stop-over in the island state as part of the “Thailand in Touch” road show to promote the Thai tourism sector.

Weerasak said that despite the kingdom being hit particularly hard by the pandemic (H1N1) virus and continuing political instability, the organization was expecting only a marginal drop from the 13.5 million visitors forecast early this year and the 14.57 million last year.

Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TATs deputy governor for marketing communications, said about 570,000 Singaporeans visited Thailand last year generating more than $US448 million in tourism revenue, compared to 185,736 from January to May this year.

However, while arrivals from Singapore were down, the marketing supremo said arrivals from the Middle East and South Asia had jumped 11.5 percent and 3.6 percent respectively, with a significant portion of East Asian visitors coming from South Korea.

Weerasak said, “Thailand’s tourism may not improve quickly in the continuing negative environment, but the TAT is already preparing for the future expansion of the economy and the industry”.

She said the TAT expected the slump in tourism arrival figures so far this year to be arrested somewhat this month as, “Koreans usually like to travel in July and August, Thailand’s low season, with their preferred destinations being Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui”.

Weerasak also said an online campaign titled “Come to Thailand, Let’s Take A Break” featuring Thai-born heart-throb Nichkhun Horvejkul (a member of popular Korean band, 2PM) was receiving high circulation in popular entertainment websites and the TAT was hoping it will draw a younger demographic of Korean tourists to Thailand.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for August 29, 2009