Thailand still on track for 12 Million Visitor Arrivals target

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is maintaining its planned target of 12 million visitor arrivals this year inspite of the disturbances in three southern Thai provinces in April, 2004.

The decision was reached after a meeting between TAT and executives of the Thai tourism private sector recently. The meeting concluded that the incidents will have minimal impact on the Thai tourism industry and that the arrivals target for this year is still achievable.

The meeting was attended by TAT Governor Mrs. Juthamas Siriwan and included senior representatives of the Tourism Council of Thailand, the Thailand Incentive and Convention Association (TICA), the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), the Thai Hotels Association (THA) and other private sector associations and organisations.

Mrs. Juthamas said there was a general consensus that the disturbances should not affect arrivals in the main tourist destinations of southern Thailand.

“Yala, Pattani and Songkhla are located about 1,000 kilometres from Bangkok and several hundred kilometres from Phuket, Krabi, Phang-nga and other beach-resort provinces popular with the tourists,” said Mrs. Juthamas.

“It is very crucial for the visitors and tourists to see that everything is under control, and that life is going on normally in Thailand,” she added.

Visitor arrivals at Bangkok International Airport in April were up by 92.12% to 619,333 over the same period (Sars crisis period) in 2003, and a growth of 3.56% over the same period of 2002.

Overall, visitor arrivals to Thailand at Bangkok Airport during January - April 2004 totalled 2.6 million, an increase of 11.35% over the same period (Sars crisis period) in 2003, or a slight decline of 1.07% over the same period of 2002.

TAT Southern Office, region 4 (Phuket) reported that the incident did not affect some planned groups such as a travel agent familiarisation trip from Sydney and a film production group from South Korea.

An incentive group of about 1,000 visitors from Taipei which has planned a trip to Thailand in June and July has decided to go ahead with the arrangements.

During the Labour Day holiday, many charter flights from China to Phuket operated as normal.

The few confirmed reports of cancellations received as of May 4, 2004 included 2-3 groups of visitors from Singapore to Phuket, and about 40 visitors from Singapore to the southern Thai city of Hat Yai.

The only temporarily serious impact has been on Malaysian visitor arrivals to Thailand. Overland border-crossings from neighbouring Malaysia slowed down considerably during the disturbances period.

“This is a normal reaction for the moment and is expected to revive soon,” said Mrs Juthamas. “As far as the overall country is concerned, it would be fair to say that tourism has not been affected in the short-term.”

With Thai authorities across all levels of government working closely to ensure the safety of both domestic and international visitors, TAT plans to proceed normally with all its marketing activities that were planned well before the April 28 disturbances, she said.

The Mega Fam Trip swung into action on May 6 when a total of 50 travel agents and travel journalists arrived from Australia to visit Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi. The visit, in co-operation with Singapore Airlines, was until May 10, 2004.

On the aviation front, another new budget airline, Valuair, started to operate double daily flights between Bangkok - Singapore on May 6, 2004, further increasing air capacity between the two cities.

Moreover, TAT has agreed with the giant US-based travel group, Cendant Corporation, on the first ever national-level marketing project in 2004. The project is aimed at tapping the visitor database of Cendant’s dot-com businesses and its offices in over 100 countries as well as its membership world-wide to boost tourism to Thailand.