Tourism Authority of Thailand Forecasts 2024 Tourism Nearly at Pre-Pandemic Levels

Next year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) intends to increase its revenue from international tourists by 94%.

TAT unveiled its “Direction for Promoting the Tourism Market in 2023” at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. This ‘direction’ was developed earlier in the week following three days of conceptualization and strategy planning.

Yuthasak Supasorn, the governor of the TAT, stated that the agency intends to generate 3 trillion baht in revenue this year, comparable to the amount produced in 2019 before the start of Covid-19.

The tourism industry is presently faced with several challenges, including the global economic downturn, inflation, increasing interest rates, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, high oil prices resulting in costly airfares, and, most importantly, the fact that only 70% of international flights have resumed. Yuthasak stated that the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) projects that the number of international flights will recover slightly more in the fourth quarter of next year and will be back to 100% in 2025.

TAT estimates that 25.8 million foreigners will take short-haul flights in Thailand next year, generating 1.2 trillion baht in revenue. While long-haul visitors are projected to generate 721 billion baht, as they usually remain longer and spend more money.

The long-haul market has also demonstrated a tendency to exceed the initial target of 7 million visitors this year, with over 8 million visitors touching down on Thai soil in the first half of this year.

Russia has been the largest market, accounting for 789,000 of the targeted 1 million sales in the first half.

Therefore, TAT intends to double its Russian target by raising the number of scheduled and chartered flights.

Likewise, the number of Indian visitors is on the rise. Thai Airways flies 70 flights weekly to India, and data from the Indian travel website “ClearTrip” indicates that the number of flights scheduled from India to Bangkok has increased by 270% compared to the same period in 2019.

According to a May report by the Asian Development Bank, India may surpass China in outbound travel growth.

The bank states that the travel and tourism sector is essential to Southeast Asian countries. Before Covid, the tourism sector contributed 12% of the nation’s GDP and employed more than 40 million people.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand

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