By Linda Khoo Hui Li
BANGKOK, July 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Thailand’s tourism industry hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic is set to generate revenue up to 2.38 trillion baht in 2023.
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said in a best-case scenario, Thailand is expected to generate revenue of 1.5 trillion baht from international visitors and 880 billion baht from domestic tourism.
“We are targeting smaller number of tourist arrivals next year compared to pre-COVID-19 level in 2019. We aims to lure high-spending visitors and those who stay longer in the kingdom,” he told reporters after TAT Action Plan for 2023 conference here.
Thailand, one of Asia’s most popular travel destinations, was visited by nearly 40 million people in 2019. However, the tourism industry almost collapsed due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the kingdom to introduce strict and costly entry requirements.
This year, Thailand is expected to receive seven to 10 million foreign tourists with the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions in the country. In the first six months this year, Thailand had received about 2 million foreign visitors.
On Monday, TAT announced its marketing plan for 2023 that will continue this year’s goal to revitalise and transform Thai tourism, while placing greater emphasis on the recovery of the tourism sector towards stronger and sustainable, more responsible, more digital and more inclusive tourism growth.
TAT will also promote all points of entry into Thailand, via land, water, and air with an aim to reinstate more than 80 per cent of the regional air capacity in 2019.
He said TAT will continue to use the “Visit Thailand Year 2022-2023: Amazing New Chapters” as the communication strategy for the international market.
“Thailand will continue to be promoted as a world-class destination that offers something for everyone under the ‘From A-Z: Amazing Thailand Has It All’ concept. This will be showcased alongside the kingdom’s 5F, 4M soft-power foundations; namely, Food, Film, Fashion, Festival, Fight, Music, Museum, Master, and Meta,” he said.
— NNN-BERNAMA
