ID :
338756
Fri, 08/22/2014 - 14:43
Auther :

Thai tourism expected to rebound from Aug 2014

BANGKOK, August 22 (TNA) - Thailand’s tourism industry is expected to rebound and gradually return to normal from August 2014. TMB Bank’s Economic Analysis Centre made the projection on Friday, after the Thai tourism industry had been negatively affected by domestic political turbulence from late 2013 to mid-2014. The TMB report indicated that Thailand’s tourism-related businesses had already hit their bottom, particularly those in Bangkok, where political protests mainly took place during the period. The report acknowledged that daily average arrivals at Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport by international visitors dropped from about 42,000 in January 2014 to approximately 20,000 in late May 2014, but they have rebounded to 42,500 since mid-August 2014, thanks to the curfew revocation nationwide on June 13 by the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Besides, ongoing promotional campaigns launched by the state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and a visa waiving fee for Chinese and Taiwanese tourists at 1,000 baht per head from August-October 2014, as part of celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Thai-Sino diplomatic relations, should help boost the purchasing power in Thailand by more than 1.2 billion baht for the Chinese and Taiwanese visitors. The TMB report, meanwhile, urged authorities concerned to also encourage more Europeans, Americans and Russians, who have high purchasing power, to visit Thailand, as their average daily spending while staying Thailand is as high as 70,000 baht each. The TMB Bank’s Economic Analysis Centre projected that a total of about 25 million foreign tourists should visit Thailand in 2014, down 5.8 per cent from 2013, cautioning, however, that the projected number could further decline if the ongoing Ebola disease situation deteriorated worldwide. (TNA)

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