The Tourism Authority of Thailand is confident it will meet its target of 10 million arrivals during this year’s high season. Nation Thailand reports that officials believe the country is set to see a strong recovery in the last quarter of 2022. TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn says he expects Thailand to welcome 10 million arrivals this year.
Yuthasak says he’s confident around 1.5 million tourists a month will arrive during the high season, which will be about half of pre-pandemic levels. During the same period in 2019, around 3 million tourists a month entered Thailand.
“Despite the global economic recession, people across the world are travelling in great numbers after years of frustration due to the Covid-19 crisis.”
Yuthasak goes on to say that flight schedules for the 2022 – 2023 winter season show an increase of more than 74% in booked passenger seats per week on flights to Thailand, compared to summer 2022.
The data also shows an increase of more than 60% in passengers from Southeast Asia and a massive increase of over 153% in passenger numbers from East Asia.Passenger numbers from Western Europe have increased by nearly 58% and by more than 30% from the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the Association of Thai Travel Agents is predicting at least 20 million foreign arrivals during 2023, according to its president, Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn. However, he says most of these will arrive via land borders, from neighbouring countries such as Malaysia. During the first 9 months of this year, around 1 million Malaysian visitors entered Thailand.
The addition of more direct flights to Thailand, coupled with the downgrading of the virus and the lifting of the face mask rule, are all factors that will help boost tourism, according to the president of the Thai Hotels Association.
Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi addes that the APEC Summit being held in Bangkok next month will also provide a boost to the economy and help with tourism recovery.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
