Thailand on world top-ten list as fast-growing tourism prospect

BANGKOK, April 20 (TNA) - Thailand has been ranked the world’s 10th place for its fast growing travel and tourism prospect in terms of the industry's total contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), told journalists of the latest ranking on Thursday, after domestic tourism earned the Thai Kingdom up to about 2.9 trillion baht (about 82.5 billion US dollars) last year, or about 20.6 per cent of the country’s overall GDP. Yuthasak stated that the new report of the World Travel and Tourism Council’s ranking has placed Thailand at the world’s No.10 for the fast growing tourism prospect over the next decade. Yuthasak projected that Thailand’s tourism-related revenues should rise to 6.9 per cent and even up to one-third in the country's total GDP over the next 10 years, or as high as 5.9 trillion baht. According to the TAT governor, Thailand has invested more than 245 billion baht for the development of the country's travel and tourism industry, or about 7.1 per cent of the country’s overall domestic investment, which has helped attract more international tourist arrivals in the Kingdom and boosted the national economic growth. The TAT governor suggested, however, that Thailand further develop strategies and infrastructure to handle the increasing number of international visitors and possible negative impacts from tourism on the local environment and cultural heritage sites. (TNA)